Milorad Dodik demanded the removal of Defense Minister Sifet Podzic for “disrespecting the BiH Constitution”, because he canceled a military exercise of the Serbian Army and the BiH Armed Forces in Manjaca near Banja Luka, and such a decision can be made by the BiH Presidency in charge of foreign policy.
A statement from the Cabinet of the member of the Presidency of BiH states that Podzic violated the Constitution of BiH with this arbitrary decision.
As further stated in the Constitution of BiH, it is explicitly stated that official (diplomatic) action against other states or international organizations from a position for which a state official of the appropriate rank objectively knows or must know that the Presidency did not take a position or approved it, ie that it does not belong to the scope of authority granted to it (previously: generally or ad hoc) by the Presidency.
The Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has postponed a military exercise planned by the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH) and the Serbian Army in Manjaca from October 9th to 16th this year. The exercise was postponed due to the epidemiological situation.
“We regret the cancellation, given that we have been jointly planning this exercise for more than six months. The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia remains a partner to BiH and Republika Srpska (RS), with the desire to achieve joint activities in the future,” it was announced by the Serbian Ministry of Defense.
As it was found out unofficially, the Ministry of Defense of BiH has postponed this exercise due to the small number of vaccinated members of the AFBiH.
This year’s tactical exercise “Manjaca 2021” is planned at the training ground on Manjaca, which should be an indicator of the development of good bilateral cooperation between the Ministries of Defense of BiH and Serbia, as was emphasized at the meeting of Ministers Sifet Podzic and Nebojsa Stefanovic last month.
This was supposed to be the first exercise of these two armies on the territory of BiH, although their cooperation is long-term within other programs and missions.
