Although it is vacation season, debates continued at informal meetings on the conclusions of the recently held Madrid NATO summit, during which Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) had a special place. The head of the department for international relations and European studies at the International Burch University and former military representative of BiH to NATO, professor Alija Kozljak, has just returned from Brussels and says that a NATO summit has not had as much resonance as this last one in a long time.
”The discussions in which I also participated in the previous days are mainly in the sense that the significance of this summit is enormous. First, for the organization itself, because after 12 years, the Alliance adopted its strategic concept. It emphasizes partnership in the sense of counting on partners in terms of cooperative security, but also helping partners who need that help,” says professor Alija Kozljak.
A crucial decision for BiH
With colleagues from NATO and the European Union (EU) in Brussels, with whom he met despite the fact that it is vacation season, he discussed the strengthening of state institutions and the acceleration of the Euro-Atlantic path of our country, as well as topics that were given special attention at the Madrid summit and its margins.
”We pretty much agreed on that. After Sweden and Finland, which were invited to NATO, BiH is next in line for membership,” Kozljak pointed out.
On the path of Euro-Atlantic integration, he adds, BiH, as a partner of special importance and aspirant country for membership, will have the help of NATO. Based on the decisions from the summit, BiH will be strengthened to respond to external threats, direct from Russia and its satellites in the region, but also internal threats that we have witnessed in recent years.
”NATO concluded that the security of BiH is locked with the security of NATO. It is integrated and it is a crucial decision for BiH because there is no longer any doubt that NATO will take care of the security of BiH. And the implementation on the ground started only two days after the summit. Funds have already been allocated to increase the number of personnel at the NATO headquarters in Sarajevo, which is understood as preparing the ground for the possible deployment of more robust forces in BiH in the event that Russia blocks the extension of EUFOR’s mandate. The forces being deployed these days are just a precursor,” Kozljak emphasized.
Help in reforms
In this context, the United Kingdom (UK) is sending cyber security experts, who will also work on providing political support to BiH in the fight against destructive elements.
”In the coming period, we will not be surprised if the destroyers of BiH’s sovereignty and its Euro-Atlantic route are ignored. At least. This is the light option of the three that have been prepared, that their views are not treated as relevant, and that NATO’s path to BiH is viewed only in terms of officially made decisions. And all official decisions go in the direction that BiH stands for.”
After the Madrid summit, joint activities were agreed on simultaneously accelerating both the European and NATO paths of BiH.
”It was concluded that both organizations will work to help the necessary reforms. In this sense, the reforms on the European path will be reinterpreted and done in stages, starting with the most necessary ones, in order to obtain candidate status in the fall immediately after the elections. In this way, conditions would be created for more functional state institutions, which is also a condition for BiH’s invitation to NATO. I informally received a message that in September, work will be accelerated on the delivery of the second reform program for BiH, where BiH could very soon be invited to join NATO,” professor Alija Kozljak concluded, Avaz writes.
E.Dz.
