The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elmedin Konaković, expressed his satisfaction today after the meeting with the head of German diplomacy, Annalena Baerbock, in Berlin, pointing out that this is another proof that Bosnia and Herzegovina is regaining its rightful place on the diplomatic stage.
“We received a positive response very quickly for the bilateral meeting. We don’t need to waste too much words on how important and reliable a partner Germany is to Bosnia and Herzegovina in all segments,” Konaković said to Fena news agency.
As he pointed out, Germany is the most important partner of BiH in terms of trade, and they are the fifth investor in BiH, which also shows the importance of good relations. He also emphasized the importance in terms of the security of the entire Western Balkans, especially Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Further improvement of relations was discussed. Konaković says that there are some new opportunities for investments, for the creation of new jobs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as the segment of dual citizenship.
He added that they had some announcements from earlier that Germany could soon solve the problem of Bosnians and Herzegovinians renouncing Bosnia and Herzegovina citizenship in order to obtain German citizenship, “which would be a very important message for us”.
“We also talked about the chance that was given to our country on the European path by obtaining candidate status and the beginning of the implementation of our obligations from 14 priorities. It seems to me that we have also shown a degree of seriousness and that we can already count on some next steps,” says Konaković.
He emphasized that it is very important that the BiH Council of Ministers has already adopted some documents “that were waiting in the drawers, and which were very well received here”.
“That is still, of course, not enough, but it is a good start, so our friends can help us more easily on the European road,” Konaković said.
Head of Bosnia and Herzegovina of diplomacy, before the meeting with Baerbock, he met with the representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s diaspora.
“In each of our official visits to all countries, we try to gather Bosnians and Herzegovinians who represent associations or individuals and we talk with them about the ties with the homeland and the problems they encounter in foreign countries, and about what the Ministry could do for them.” says Konakovic.
He emphasizes that there are several hundred thousand people in Germany who are citizens of BiH, and there is no data on how many have already renounced BiH citizenship.
“It was very important, and of course they were also happy, that the representatives of the institutions talked to them in non-election years. Our mistake towards the diaspora is that the institutions dealt with people in the diaspora mainly when it was time to vote in the election year, and then those connections it almost didn’t happen. We work on it a lot. We meet with Bosnians and Herzegovinans all over the world, and we get some instructions and requests from them, and of course a lot of good suggestions,” he said.
He assessed that it was a very pleasant conversation, because “these are our smart people who have managed, positioned themselves well, and received a good education”.
“They are very interested in contributing their quality to events in BiH. We will work to bring a large number of them to BiH for some events, to offer them certain content and to send a message of strengthening BiH’s relations with its diaspora,” Konaković concluded in the conversation.
Photo: Fabian Sommer/picture alliance/dpa
