The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) Elmedin Konakovic (NiP) caused numerous reactions with his latest statement about the “Open Balkan”, which once again questioned the possible membership of BiH in this community.
Speaking the day before yesterday about the first hundred days as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Konakovic also referred to the “Open Balkan”, which consists of Serbia, North Macedonia, and Albania.
“The story of the ‘Open Balkan’ as a kind of ‘Serbian world’ is some kind of political intrigue in which it is the ‘Serbian world’ – all Serbs in one state. How many Muslims, and Bosniaks do we have in that potential state without borders, regional cooperation, has anyone counted? Do you know how many there are – more than five million,” he emphasized.
The representative of the opposition party DF in the Parliament of the Federation of BiH (FBiH), Dennis Gratz, is among those who condemned Konakovic for this statement and accused him of superficiality in this matter.
“Every story of this scale and intensity must be an occasion for a broad public debate. And for that, resources, intellectual and other, and the outlines of a vision are necessary. No. Nothing. Zero. Nix. He gets in front of the microphones and starts a little story: a little bit about the SDA, a little bit about how he saw it all, now that he’s here, a little bit of sarcasm, threatens or shows some breadth, and so on until the chorus,” Gratz pointed out.
Part of the public in BiH is against the “Open Balkan”, considering it to be a tool for Serbia and Albania to dominate this part of Europe. For the parties from Republika Srpska (RS), BiH should be part of the “Open Balkan”, claiming that it is not a large-state project and that the country will benefit economically.
The “Open Balkan”, of which neither Montenegro nor Kosovo are part, is also referred to as a United States (U.S.) project. Gabriel Escobar, the special envoy of the U.S. for the Western Balkans, said last year that his country supports the “Open Balkan” as an economic initiative.
However, some warn that BiH would not be able to realize the economic benefits promised by this initiative, due to the internal arrangement. The complex system makes it difficult to make and implement economic decisions, which is not the case in other countries in the region. This is primarily the case in the FBiH, where the decision-making and management procedure is significantly more difficult than in the rest of the country.
Konakovic, after a meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in March of this year, said that there will be no discussion at all about the “Open Balkan” until the Berlin Process is ratified, Klix.ba reports.
