The Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zukan Helez, received the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ruben Brekelmans, on an official visit this evening.
Helez stated that he had discussed the Althea Mission with the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and asked him to help Bosnia and Herzegovina become a member of the European Union and NATO as soon as possible.
“They will help, but we must meet certain criteria. We meet certain conditions that the NATO Alliance has set for us,” he said.
Helez also said that they had also discussed equipping the Armed Forces of BiH through the NATO assistance package and pointed out that NATO had approved assistance in the amount of up to 35 million euros, which has only been partially fulfilled.
“A certain percentage has been completed, however, more donations for the Armed Forces are yet to come,” concluded Helez.
The Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Ruben Brekelmans, thanked for the excellent cooperation between the Armed Forces of BiH and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
“We came to BiH with a large delegation, because we will visit our troops deployed there and we are very proud of the fact that we can contribute to security and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina through the EUFOR Mission,” he said.
Through joint training, the minister added, we can also help strengthen the capacities of the Armed Forces of BiH.
“And we are not doing this only bilaterally, we are also doing this through our partnership programs through NATO, and we have also discussed how we will strengthen the capacities of the Armed Forces of BiH through other programs,” he said.
Speaking about BiH’s membership in the EU, he emphasized that he would provide assistance to BiH to achieve certain criteria that have been set before it.
“The attention of the Royal Netherlands is dedicated to the eastern flank of Europe due to the current Russian aggression against Ukraine, but we must not forget the south of Europe, which is why we came to BiH,” he concluded.
