No one in BiH has the right to unilaterally destroy the achieved level of reforms and the structure of BiH institutions – Bosniak Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic stressed Monday after a meeting with US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar.

“The next very important message is that BiH must continue on its European path, fulfilling the obligations from the Opinion of the European Commission and from the adopted reform program. The next thing highlighted by Escobar is economic cooperation in the Western Balkans region. It is necessary for the countries of the Western Balkans to cooperate economically within the regional market, within the Berlin process under the auspices of the European Union,” said Dzaferovic.

He added that he told Escobar Bosnia signed a number of documents on November 10 last year when it comes to regional economic cooperation, but he also stated that initiatives from Belgrade, Tirana and Skopje when it comes to the “Open Balkans” must be clarified.

“As far as I am concerned, BiH should go through regional cooperation. We have adopted the documentation and we need to start implementing those documents,” he said.

BiH Presidency member Dzaferovic also said that he underlined that the current blockade of BiH institutions is absolutely unacceptable.
He reiterated that BiH's path is to implement reforms, to cooperate in the region on these principles and to follow the European path.

When asked by the N1 reporter whether he talked about BiH Presidency member Milorad Dodik with Escobar, and what he thinks about Dodik's meetings with Prime Ministers of Hungary and Slovenia, Dzaferovic answered that he “did not deal with Dodik”, nor did he talk about him.

“They will have a meeting and they will talk about that. It is important to me that Escobar said that there is no, nor can there be, any unilateral reduction of reforms within BiH, unilateral interpretation or destruction of any reform in BiH. We did everything in accordance with the Dayton Agreement,” Dzaferovic pointed out.

He added that he would not like to speculate about Dodik's meetings with Orban and Jansa, as well as what the BiH’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity President Zeljka Cvijanovic was doing in Washington underlined that “for BiH, the most important thing is peace and stability that will be preserved. No one can unilaterally destroy reforms in BiH with their action.”

The US Envoy will also meet with Bosnian Serb Presidency member Milorad Dodik, the leadership of the state and Federation (FBiH) entity parliament leadership.

Escobar arrived in Sarajevo on Sunday, when he first met with the US Ambassador to BiH Eric Nelson. He also met with youth activists and business leaders.