The rhetoric about ethnic redrawing of borders is the rhetoric of past centuries. The geostrategic configuration of the region has been completed and there will be no new borders and new states in the Western Balkans, Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency member Sefik Dzaferovic said in an interview with the Serbian daily Danas.
Dzaferovic emphasized that cooperation in the region, with mutual respect and appreciation, must not have an alternative, and that the strategic commitment of the region is integration into the EU and NATO.
“I think that this process can relax relations and provide security and a better living environment for citizens. The countries of the Western Balkans should cooperate with each other, respecting each other,” he said.
Dzaferovic pointed out that open issues should be resolved through talks and agreements.
“Where there is no agreement, international law should be applied. Our peoples live in all countries of the region, which is a very important fact,” Dzaferovic pointed out.
When asked whether the phrase ‘Serbian world’ should be taken seriously, Dzaferovic answered in the affirmative.
“Of course, because it is, as it is presented by Serbian officials, just another name for Greater Serbia. The statements of Serbian officials cannot and must not be understood differently when they say that it is the unification of the Serbian people in both the political and state sense. This is a dangerous message, which is a continuation of the rhetoric about Greater Serbia, that is, Milosevic’s vocabulary about ‘all Serbs in one state’,” Dzaferovic pointed out.
Commenting on the “farewell tour” of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chose Belgrade and Tirana for her visit to the Western Balkans, Dzaferovic said that she had done a lot for the region of the Western Balkans.
“I consider it extremely important that it prevented attempts to exchange territories and redraw borders. If her visit will contribute to preserving a credible European perspective for Tirana and all other countries in the region, on the one hand, and contribute to calming growing tensions between Serbia and its neighboring countries, which we have witnessed in recent days, then the visit will make full sense,” concluded Dzaferovic .
