The fourth Sarajevo Security Conference today brought together more than 300 participants and 140 speakers in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the next three days, they will discuss matters regarding the future of European and global security, N1 writes.
The topic of the conference is “Securing Europe in a Divided World,” which covers European security architecture, cognitive warfare, energy security, and new technologies and artificial intelligence in defense.
The Head of the NATO Headquarters in BiH, General James Fowler, emphasized that for over 30 years NATO has been working with Bosnia and Herzegovina on supporting peace, stability, and security, as well as building and strengthening defense institutions and creating a safe environment for all citizens.
He added that today we have security, but that it is important to keep in mind that it is not a passive state and that it requires constant alertness, deep institutional partnership, and unwavering collective political will.
Fowler said that we cannot allow the hard-won peace of the past three decades to be threatened by internal rhetoric of division or malign foreign influences, which attempt to create a foothold for instability.
“Our work ultimately supports the most important thing—the security and stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans. NATO will continue to stand with you as a devoted partner,” Fowler said.
The Head of the Delegation of the European Union and European Union Special Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ambassador Luigi Soreca, emphasized that four years of war on European soil have put an end to all debates and discussions and that we are the ones who must take full responsibility for our defense.
He underlined that Europe’s security is not an isolated matter but that it represents a joint effort, while the security of Bosnia and Herzegovina is inseparable from the security of the rest of Europe.
“Exactly through investments, partnerships, and the process of European integration, we help our partners in the Western Balkans, including BiH, to make a shift from being consumers in the security sector to those who contribute to it. In that regard, over the past years, the EU has allocated 98 million euros for regional defense systems, of which over 35 million euros went to the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” Soreca said.
Azeem Ibrahim from the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington said that the Western Balkans is not only a region where the US and Europe should prevent a new crisis but also a place whose future will decide the security architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He added that the goal must not only be to keep the Western Balkans stable but to transform it into a fully integrated part of the Euro-Atlantic security system.
The Sarajevo Security Conference was envisioned as a platform for dialogue on challenges that Europe, the Western Balkans, and the international community are faced with.
