The historic NATO Summit in Lithuania was not historic for Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) either. The support is there, but, many believe, it is insufficient in relation to the crisis the country is in. The Alliance does not believe that the military annexes of Dayton should be applied, although some of those present expressed deep concern. NATO continues to assist the Armed Forces as before.
There was no special discussion about BiH. Things happened on the margins of the Summit. It was reiterated that membership in NATO depends exclusively on internal agreement. Promised financial support to the Armed Forces. Expressed concern about secessionist politics and the weakening of state institutions.
“A number of ministers have very clearly and directly expressed their concern for the political situation in BiH, in the context of this political crisis which is permanent and which does not allow us to focus on reform with all our capacities and possibilities,” said Josip Brkic, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH.
Those who expected that in addition to Ukraine, any other country would receive special attention from the Alliance, they were mistaken. The West woke up only after Russia started the biggest European war after World War II.
“The war in Ukraine is a priority, BiH, together with Moldova and Georgia are on the list of things that still need to be resolved in the future. In the meantime, until it becomes a priority-zero once the Ukrainian war is over, until then they will work on maintaining some kind of stability and not allowing further destabilization of this terrain,” said Ranko Mavrak, a political analyst.
The crisis of all crises, the grossest violation of the Dayton Agreement so far, the possibility of conflict, threats by the police on the entity line, threats of secession – still not enough for NATO to initiate the activities that the important part of BiHcitizens expected.
“We want to see NATO soldiers in Brcko, it will not happen, NATO’s position is that they are strongly and firmly with EUFOR and that they will help EUFOR when they ask for it, there will be no parallel deployment of NATO soldiers beyond EUFOR, and EUFOR has its own regular plans, there will be anew one rotation of Germans, a new contingent of Danes and a large contingent of Dutch, 150 of them, are arriving,” said journalist Sead Numanovic.
Even some in the Republika Srpska (RS) believe that the international community must have a stronger response. In the absence of a reaction, a message is sent to Milorad Dodik that the world is creating circumstances for an independent RS. However, they believe that this should not be any military response by NATO.
“According to the Dayton Agreement, NATO does not need any consent from BiH at any level to come with one or a million soldiers. If it happens that they decide that they need to do it, they can do it at any moment, it is such a military configuration that can react quickly”, said Igor Crnadak, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH.
The opposition from RS is of the opinion that this, as many call it the biggest constitutional crisis to date, will pass as if it never happened. During that time, financially and in every other way, Dodik and his associates are doing well. And as Dodik himself pointed out, international sanctions only “boost” his ego, N1 reports.
E.Dz.
