In October or November, the United Nations (UN) Security Council will consider the extension of EUFOR’s mandate in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). If a member (Russia) does not agree, it will mean that the Althea mission ends in our country.
In that case, it is already known that NATO will deploy its forces in BiH, and it was also found out from diplomatic sources that the decision has already been made and that Russia will block the extension of EUFOR’s mandate.
Furthermore, the BiH authorities have already been informed that NATO leaders are currently considering a plan to deploy their units, which, if Russia uses the veto in the Security Council, would replace EUFOR units.
NATO and the United States (U.S.) are not sitting idly by, and for that reason, the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO, Julianne Smith, will arrive in Sarajevo on Monday, where she will talk with the Minister of Defense of BiH, Sifet Podzic, and stay at the NATO base in Butmir.
The current EUFOR mandate in our country lasts until November 3rd. If it is not extended before that date, the EUFOR forces that have been reinforced in the last six months will have to leave BiH.
That NATO will deploy its units in the event of the end of EUFOR’s mandate is a topic that was raised more than a year ago, and the former military representative of BiH to NATO, Alija Kozljak, said then that NATO already has the mandate to operate in BiH and that no new decision is needed in this regard.
He emphasized that NATO already has a mandate to act and does not need any new decision in this sense.
”NATO offers us as an aspirant state other possibilities, namely that NATO, taking into account the aspirant ambition of BiH, would not like any third actor to threaten the regional balance that now exists and threaten the security of BiH. Those tools that are used through the Membership Action Plan (MAP), which are constant and intensive cooperation with all institutions in BiH, provide the opportunity for NATO to somehow control and direct the processes. For this reason, among other things, NATO first continuously monitors the situation in BiH, therefore it has the necessary information to assume the role of security in the event of a breach of security, not in accordance with the MAP, but in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution from 2004. take over the role of security guarantor given by the Dayton Peace Agreement if EUFOR is unable to do so,” Kozljak stated.
The Russian puppet in the Balkans, the current member of the BiH Presidency, Milorad Dodik, knows this very well, who, after fierce criticism directed at EUFOR, suddenly changed his rhetoric and said that he strongly supports their presence on the soil of BiH.
At the meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on September 20th, Dodik will ask that Moscow doesn’t veto the extension of EUFOR’s mandate otherwise NATO will replace EUFOR troops.
”In addition, Milorad Dodik, through Hungary and France, is trying to lobby for the adoption of a decision according to which EUFOR units would be stationed only on the territory of the Federation of BiH (FBiH). One of the proponents of this idea was the French general Brice Houdet, otherwise the operational commander of the European Union (EU) for operation ALTHEA. This is the officer who met with Milorad Dodik in May of this year, after which Dodik said that EUFOR has his support,” it is stated, and it is added that shortly after this meeting, General Houdet left the post of EU operational commander for the Althea mission because he gave confidential information to the SNSD leader, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
