The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, said that his visit is a sign of the growing importance of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkan countries for the overall security structure of the European Union, and expressed his belief that the place of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the entire Balkans is in the European Union, but also within Euro-Atlantic structures.
“If the countries of the Western Balkans remain in the gray zone, only those who want to influence unrest in Europe will benefit from it. When Bosnia and Herzegovina and all other Balkan countries are within the EU institutions, it will greatly improve the stable and secure situation in the region, but it will also affect the prosperity of the region,” he said.
The President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, who arrived on a two-day official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, was welcomed this morning in Sarajevo with the highest state and military honors. After a ceremonial welcome in front of the BiH Presidency building, he met with the Chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željka Cvijanović, and members of the Presidency, Denis Bećirović and Željko Komšić.
Pavel said that the Czech Republic supports Bosnia and Herzegovina on its path to the European Union and that they have been advocating for BiH’s membership in NATO for a long time.
“I see both the potential for further work, but also certain tasks that need to be fulfilled to start negotiations and succeed on the path to the European Union, which opens up a lot of space for BiH to access funds, as well as other mechanisms and achieve success,” he said.
He believes that the purpose of his visit is to discuss the path to the European Union and that the Czech Republic can help BiH, but also to discuss improving cooperation in all areas.
Regarding bilateral relations, Pavel said that a record year has been achieved, but that more is always needed.
“The more you progress towards the European Union, the more space opens up for additional cooperation in the field of different sectors, economy, cybersecurity and so on. All these are prosperous areas and we are ready to cooperate together in this regard,” he said.
The Chairperson of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željka Cvijanović, said that they added an economic dimension to the conversation and that today they will talk to businessmen from BiH and the Czech Republic to see how they can improve economic relations.
“Our political understanding is good, we have no open issues, which gives more space for our cooperation in all areas. We talked about how important it is to improve our relations in the field of tourism and how much it is one of the bridges that can connect our people, to better understand each other,” she emphasized.
Cvijanović also expressed gratitude for the support related to providing certain scholarships when it comes to BiH students.
“As for the security situation, I took the opportunity to say that we are without the security challenges that are often talked about from the outside, but also that we have certain political disagreements on very important topics. However, what binds us is that we talk about a common story about the European path,” concluded Cvijanović.
Member of the BiH Presidency Denis Bećirović said that it is very important for BiH that the Czech Republic consistently and principledly supports the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“In the last century, we had similar fates. The Czech Republic was one of the biggest victims in Europe in the first half of the 20th century, and Bosnia and Herzegovina one of the biggest victims in the second half of the 20th century. From the examples of the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the whole of Europe should learn a lesson, and that lesson is that we should never make compromises that are to the detriment of European values and that threaten the state borders of internationally recognized countries,” he said.
He claims that bilateral relations between the two countries are excellent and that former president Václav Havel has a special place in the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Speaking about economic relations, he noted that the indicators show that last year the countries had a record foreign trade exchange amounting to about 726 million BAM.
“Bosnia and Herzegovina’s exports to the Czech Republic have increased, as have imports, and as far as BiH is concerned, we will have to work harder to reduce the foreign trade deficit in trade in goods. That is why it is important to connect businessmen from BiH and the Czech Republic as well as possible,” he said.
Bećirović thanked President Pavel for his concrete assistance when it comes to Bosnia and Herzegovina’s European and NATO path.
“These are our strategic and foreign policy goals, our interest is to dynamize the path towards full membership in the European Union and NATO. On the NATO path, we have achieved certain concrete results in the last two years. Although, I believe, these results can be much better,” he said.
However, Bećirović says that the problems in BiH are no longer primarily of a political nature.
“The problems we face in BiH are now primarily security problems. Some of the most important leaders of the NATO alliance testify to this. Ten days ago, the NATO Secretary General also said that he was very concerned about the situation in BiH. After all, we all learned some difficult news in BiH last week. Namely, the United States of America announced that, in addition to rhetoric, there was even a plan and a special working group that worked to break the Dayton Peace Agreement and the state of BiH. We will inform all important world addresses about this and take these facts very seriously,” concluded Bećirović.
As part of his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pavel will also meet with members of the collegium of both houses of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
It is planned that the President of the Czech Republic, together with the Chairperson of the BiH Presidency, will attend the Bosnia and Herzegovina – Czech Republic business forum, which will be held at the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH. The organizers of the event are the Foreign Trade Chamber of BiH and the Association of Industry of the Czech Republic, Fena news agency writes.
Photo: Hazim Aljovic/Fena
