The President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik said today that he will ask the Chairperson of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović to stop all joint exercises between the Armed Forces of BiH and NATO while the conflict in Ukraine continues.
“I will ask Željka Cvijanović to stop all exercises here with anyone while the conflict in Ukraine continues. I will ask the Commission for Cooperation with NATO to stop working,” Dodik told reporters after a meeting with Cvijanović in Banja Luka.
He stated that Western countries require them to join the EU sanctions against Russia.
“They ask us to follow their policy without asking anything. We do not want subjection. The RS did not allow a decision to be made on the recognition of Kosovo, just as it did not allow any decision to be made anywhere in BiH in the bodies provided for that the introduction of sanctions against Russia,” Dodik emphasized.
The Chairperson of the BiH Presidency, Željka Cvijanović, has warned that she will seek a “freezing” of relations between the BiH Presidency and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), if the MFA continues to conduct foreign policy without the agreed positions of the members of the BiH Presidency.
“It has not deviated from the old and strange practices in foreign policy, given that we have different positions, that the instructions of the MSP regarding certain missions should be different from what was agreed,” she said.
She added that when making decisions related to foreign policy, a veto can be adopted, which needs to be approved by the National Assembly of the RS (NSRS), emphasizing that she will use the veto mechanism if necessary.
According to her, the MSP must implement the decisions of the BiH Presidency, that is, it should exercise restraint, if there is a difference of opinion among the members of the Presidency.
The problem, she assessed, is that very often there is no possibility of using the veto, because the MSP often requests an opinion from the Presidency a day before voting in international institutions.
“I will insist that the situation changes, even if it means the freezing of relations between the two institutions,” said Cvijanović, who did not specify what “freezing” would mean.
