In an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, Russian Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Igor Kalabukhov said that “the time has passed” for the Office of the High Representative (OHR). He also spoke about the Armed Forces (AF) of BiH.
According to him, Russia’s attitude towards the OHR is well known, its time has passed. He reiterated that Christian Schmidt was not the High Representative (HR) as far as Russia is concerned because his appointment to that function had not been considered by the United Nations (UN) Security Council.
Kalabukhov commented on the announcement of the member of the Presidency of BiH and the president of the SNSD, Milorad Dodik, that the Republika Srpska (RS) will form an army. On that occasion, he told that BiH “consists of entities” and that the AF must be a matter of agreement in BiH.
“Joint forces are not envisaged by the Dayton Agreement. They were created in 2008 with the consent of the entities that make up BiH – to transfer appropriate powers to the state level. Another issue is that RS, according to its representatives, gave consent due to the mass pressure of external factors. Opponents of such a formulation of the issue believe that the joint armed forces have been approved by the decisions of the Parliamentary Assembly (PA) of BiH and that no unilateral decision can affect it. We believe that this and other problems that exist should be discussed within the framework of dialogue within BiH. Unfortunately, such a dialogue has not started, ” he noted.
He thinks that former HR Valentin Inzko is “significantly responsible” for the deteriorating political situation after imposing a legal ban on denying the Srebrenica genocide and other war crimes. He assessed that Inzko is an experienced politician and that as such he should have foreseen the consequences for BiH, as well as the entire region. He is among those who think that it is difficult, as he stated, to determine the extremely negative resonance caused by this decision.
“This is extremely difficult, primarily due to the fundamental differences in the attitudes of the BiH parties on the essence of the problem raised by Valentin Inzko’s decision, as well as the differences in the legal interpretation of the current situation,” Kalabukhov pointed out.
NATO was also the topic of conversation. As he explained, foreign policy is a sovereign right of BiH and, as far as he understands, there is no consensus in BiH on membership in this military alliance. He characterized NATO as an instrument of the Cold War.
“In this context, I would like to note that in some Balkan countries, membership in the NATO Alliance is seen as a guarantee of internal political stability. In our opinion, such stability, not only for individual countries but for Europe as a whole, can only be ensured by creating a system of common European security, not the enlargement of NATO, which remains an instrument of the Cold War, ” he said.
In an interview with “Izvestia”, Russian Ambassador to BiH,Igor Kalabukhov assures that his country is ready for cooperation with BiH in the fight against coronavirus, and that also refers to the procurement of coronavirus vaccines.
E.Dz.
Source: Klix.ba
