The Munich Security Conference is the place where a great number of world officials meet in one place, and it is an opportunity to use these contacts for the promotion of Bosnia and Herzegovina and everything that is happening here, said BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković for FENA from Munich.
“I have to stress that we easily reach all interlocutors, that people are very enthusiastic about everything that is happening in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it seems to me that there were too many missed opportunities. I think BiH is always a desirable topic for talks, but our government representatives have not done that for a long time. Therefore, this new energy of the Presidency, Parliament and the Council of Ministers will show that BiH diplomacy can do much better,” Konaković stated.
He said that this morning they met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, and noted it was “a pleasant and quite productive meeting”.
“She is quite familiar with the situation in BiH, both through her personal information and through Manuel Sarrazin, the special envoy of the German government for BiH. We discussed some possibilities that BiH will have now when it received the EU candidate status, that is, about the momentum and new energy coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina. We also agreed that Germany is one of the most important partners on this path,” says the head of BiH diplomacy.
The BiH Foreign Minister also met with Helga Maria Schmid, Secretary General of the OSCE. Konaković stated that they discussed security and projects that are being carried out in BiH.
“It seems to me that there is plenty of room for cooperation. We have agreed that during our visit to Vienna, we will also visit the OSCE Office, with which we will strengthen the relations that BiH already has,” he said.
He pointed out that a very important meeting was held today with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg.
“That was perhaps the most open meeting because he also follows the situation in BiH quite well and announced his arrival in Sarajevo in March together with his Italian colleague. Perhaps they will be the first ministers of foreign affairs to visit BiH after the election of the new BiH Council of Ministers. We agreed on some details about that. We also talked about the processes that await BiH on the European path, about the 14 priorities of the European Commission, but also about the five plus two priorities,” said Konaković.
The day ended with a bilateral meeting with representatives of Serbia.
“We talked with the Minister of European Integration, Tanja Miščević, about some of Serbia’s experiences on that path, and we had a conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, on the sidelines of the conference and confirmed our visit to Serbia, which will take place on February 24,” Konaković told FENA.
