Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH Zlatko Lagumdžija participated in the opening of the UN General Assembly and series of gatherings at high and the highest level on the first day of the UN General Assembly in New York, and he held series of bilateral meetings.
At the gathering dedicated to initiative “Open Government Partnership”, which was held on topic of “OGP: Citizen Action – Responsive Government” at the UN headquarters, chaired by President of Indonesia and Mexico, BiH was welcomed in the Open Government Partnership as 65th member of this global initiative.
Eleven chiefs of state participated in the gathering, including presidents of the USA, South African Republic, Tanzania, Croatia, Georgia, Brazil, 30 ministers and representatives of UN, the World Bank and more than 300 civil society representatives.
During his address at the ministerial session of the Open Government Partnership, Lagumdžija thanked all partner countries for their support to BiH within this initiative and emphasized that he sent a Letter of Intent on behalf of BiH on September 1 for BiH to join OGP, which was welcomed by all participants of the gathering.
Minister emphasized that by accepting the values and principles from the OGP Declaration, BiH demonstrated its commitment in four key areas and those are fiscal transparency, access to information, presenting revenue and property of elected and high public officials and inclusion of citizens.
”We call the business community and civil society organizations to participate in projects and activities of the Open Government Partnership. We are dedicated to promotion of full access and revealing information on government activities, including the information on spending of public money. We wish to be a government and society of 21st century, a government which follows principles of open government, which supports and serves the citizens,” said Lagumdžija.
Within the UN GA, Lagumdžija held series of bilateral meetings which focused on economic cooperation and constitutional reforms in BiH after the elections.
Among others, he met with Federica Mogherini, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Italy and future high representative of the EU, where it was emphasized it is necessary to continue process of the European integration of BiH and use a post-election period for structural reforms.
Minister Mogherini expressed full support and dedication to process of accelerated path of BiH as an integral state on the path of Euro-Atlantic integration, PR Office of the BiH Foreign Ministry said.
He also met with foreign ministers of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Austria, Sebastian Kurz, Luxembourg Jean Asselborn and foreign minister of Lichtenstein Aurelia Frick and talked about bilateral cooperation and further support of these countries to the European integration of BiH, especially through new EU approach.
Furthermore, Minister Lagumdžija met with U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Brian Hoyt Yee and exchanged views on constitutional reforms that need to be implemented after October elections towards a more functional state where the Sejdić-Finci issue would be only one segment of overall reforms.
He met with the OSCE Secretary General Lambert Zannier and talked to him about continuation of successful cooperation between BiH and OSCE, the upcoming General Elections in BiH and the need for OSCE Observation Mission to carry out monitoring of not only the elections but the media in BiH as well.
(Source: Fena)
