Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zukan Helez is paying an official visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan with a delegation of the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina announced.
On the first day of the visit, Helez had an official meeting with the President of this country Ilham Aliyev and the Minister of Defense, Lieutenant General Zakir Hasanov. The meetings were also attended by the Deputy Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina Slaven Galić.
Helez informed President Aliyev and Minister Hasanov about the situation in our country, the anti-Dayton, anti-constitutional and separatist actions of the authorities of Republika Srpska (RS).
“I used the official visit to inform President Aliyev and the authorities of this country about the real picture and situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. President Aliyev understands what is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina because the Republic of Azerbaijan had a similar problem several years ago. The Nagorno-Karabakh region, which belongs to Azerbaijan under international law and is predominantly populated by Armenians, was not under the full control of the central government of Azerbaijan. Diplomatic attempts to resolve the situation peacefully were unsuccessful. A war broke out, in which Azerbaijan completely brought the Nagorno-Karabakh region under the control of the central government,” said Helez.
After Minister Helez’s presentation, President Aliyev emphasized that the Republic of Azerbaijan fully supports Bosnia and Herzegovina, its sovereignty, territorial integrity and unity.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sovereign country with a thousand-year tradition of statehood and perhaps the oldest and longest-standing borders as a state in Europe. The RS government will not change that. We will do everything possible by legal and political means to ensure that Bosnia and Herzegovina preserves its territorial integrity, sovereignty and constitutional order. Any attempt at secession will, like the case of Nagorno-Karabakh, result in full integration into the constitutional and legal ancestor of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” concluded Minister Helez.
The topics of the meetings were also the improvement of cooperation, especially economic and military. Concrete steps to improve cooperation in the field of defense were agreed with Minister Hasanov.
A delegation of the Ministry of Defense of BiH, led by Minister Helez, has a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the Minister of Defense Industries of the Republic of Azerbaijan, when the participants will discuss cooperation between the two countries in the field of defense industry.
