The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has not received a single request for trade or export of drones to date. This invalidates the statements made by the BiH Minister of Defense, Zukan Helez, who recently, once again, claimed that BiH produces and exports drones to other countries.
“We have our own BiH drones that are very, very good and are being exported,” Helez said in Doboj on January 16th of this year.
When asked which countries the drones are exported to, Helez said it was a secret but that the information could be verified at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH.
The Minister of Defense of BiH gave statements, and all information was verified at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH.
In an official response, it was stated that to date, the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received any request for approval to issue a document for foreign trade involving the export of the item in question (drones).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH confirmed that they received an inquiry regarding the export of drones, the types of drones, and whether they are produced by private companies in BiH or by defense industry factories that are majority-owned by the state or entities within BiH.
“According to the Law on the Control of Foreign Trade of Weapons, Military Equipment, and Special-Purpose Goods, the competent ministries of BiH, including the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, give prior approval before the final issuance of a permit.
In accordance with international obligations undertaken, when reviewing each individual request, the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs ensures that the permit is issued in line with BiH’s foreign policy, adhering to the Common Position of the Council of the European Union (EU) (2008/944/CFSP).
After obtaining prior approvals, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH issues permits for the export, import, and brokering of weapons and military equipment listed in the Common List of Military Equipment, permits for the export of special-purpose goods listed in the Special-Purpose Goods List, and permits for the export and import of services related to weapons and military equipment.
Based on the above, we inform you that the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received any requests for approval to issue a document for foreign trade where the type of goods for export is the subject of this inquiry,” the official response states.
Despite all these facts, which are certainly known to the BiH Minister of Defense, he has for a long time been claiming that BiH both produces and exports drones and in Doboj recently even mentioned a figure of 20 million BAM as the value of this export.
“For a drone to be exported, four ministries must give approval. I am not a drone manufacturer, and I do not export them, but the entire state of BiH benefits from it, including this smaller BiH entity, through VAT and other contributions,” Helez said.
The response from the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs clearly states that there are no required approvals, which means there is no drone export.
It should be recalled that in April 2024, Helez also claimed that there were two contracts for the export of drones, but at that time, the BiH Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations stated that no such contracts existed. Just as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH is saying today. Nevertheless, Helez has continued his story about drones.
Although BiH Minister of Defense Zukan Helez regularly speaks about this topic in the media, in April last year, an official inquiry was sent to the Ministry of Defense, which he heads. At that time, it was stated that “providing detailed information could potentially harm the Ministry of Defense” and that they “are not able to provide a direct response to the inquiry.” Even though a follow-up inquiry clarified that Minister Helez often discusses this topic publicly, a response was never received.
Given the seriousness of the topic, involving the potential production and export of a certain type of weapon, Helez should finally tell the truth to his colleagues in the BiH Council of Ministers and the public. Either everything is a secret known only to Helez and no one else, not even the competent institutions, or perhaps none of it is true at all, Klix.ba writes.
