HDZ BiH President Dragan Čović said on Wednesday that the process of BiH’s rapprochement with NATO cannot be stopped, and that the Croats will be the leaders of that process after the President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik announced the end of relations with this military alliance a day earlier, reports Hina.
“Every day we are getting closer to NATO and that path cannot be stopped. Regardless of the fact that someone would like to stop these processes, to send a different message about the current environment in Europe, the bloody war and Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, or on the other hand, about regional games,” Cović said when asked about the announcement by the Serbian authorities from Bosnia and Herzegovina that they would initiate the termination of relations with the NATO alliance.
A day earlier, Dodik announced that he would prohibit all Serbian officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina from having any contact with representatives of NATO, with whom he does not want any cooperation.
At the press conference in Banja Luka that he held with the chairperson of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, Dodik announced that he would resolutely try to prevent BiH from joining NATO.
The president of the HDZ BiH points out that membership in the NATO alliance and the EU are the key determinants of their foreign policy.
“Euro-Atlantic integration is key for us. There is no alternative as a solution,” he said. He explained that he is aware of the different views in Bosnia and Herzegovina regarding membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but at the same time he stated that the country is making daily progress towards that goal.
“We are definitely getting closer, not further, to the NATO alliance every day,” he said.
He stated that soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina participate in NATO peacekeeping missions, and are undergoing training and education within the structures of this military alliance.
“I think the time will come when we will achieve that goal (membership in NATO). I don’t know if the current set of politicians will welcome it, but every day we are getting closer to that goal,” he pointed out.
Asked about Dodik’s initiative to leave the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Čović said that Bosnia and Herzegovina is the homeland of the Croats, and that they will strongly continue to build it and achieve the equality of this nation.
