Bosnia and Herzegovina is a country that has an activated NATO Membership Action Plan, and for it to become a member it must implement the necessary reforms and all citizens and BiH authorities must want it, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

For the country to become a NATO member, two conditions must be met, and one of them is that the necessary reforms are actually implemented.

BiH should continue with its reform efforts and it is important to understand that the strengthening of government institutions, the strengthening of the multiethnic nature of, for example, the armed forces, is good for the country regardless of NATO membership, and it helps the country on the path to the EU, Stoltenberg said after meeting with BiH Presidency Chairman Denis Becirovic in Sarajevo.

The other condition is that BiH citizens and political authorities must want this. Even though NATO membership is not something that will happen tomorrow, the efforts made towards that goal will strengthen BiH, stabilise it and help it join the EU, Stoltenberg said.

Becirovic said that a vast majority of BiH citizens support the country's NATO membership.

NATO membership is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's strategic foreign policy priorities. That is what BiH state institutions have decided and that decision was made in such a way that representatives from both entities and all of BiH peoples voted for it. That is why we have a very clear legal framework, with BiH institutions having adopted all the necessary legal and strategic documents for the defence sector, said Becirovic.

He added that he supports NATO's proactive approach, including measures of deterrence, as well as the possible presence of NATO troops at BiH military bases.

BiH has been working on drawing closer to NATO for the past 20 years. “We are now at NATO's door and we should use that chance for the sake of all BiH citizens and peoples,” Becirovic said, calling on NATO to send his country an invitation to join.

The NATO Secretary-General expressed deep concern at the continued secessionist policies and divisive rhetoric.

That is thoughtless and dangerous and undermines the hard-won progress and obstructs reforms that BiH citizens would benefit from, Stoltenberg said.

He added that all political leaders should work together to preserve unity and protect national institutions, which is crucial for peace and security in the country and for stability in the Western Balkans.

Even though Bosnian Serb representatives earlier voted for laws that would lead BiH to NATO, in the past ten years the prevailing position in that entity has been that BiH should stay neutral and follow Serbia, which has declared military neutrality.

In 2017, the RS parliament voted in a resolution on the entity's military neutrality.