Today, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zoran Tegeltija, made a decision on the dismissal of the Minister of Defense of BiH, Sifet Podzic, and sent the request to the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which should confirm the decision.
The Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers, who is responsible for harmonizing the constitutional relations of the BiH Council of Ministers with the work of the BiH Presidency, the BiH Parliamentary Assembly, the Entities and the Brcko District, as well as for harmonizing the work of the BiH Council of Ministers.
He defended the rule of law and internal trust, as well as diplomatic relations and foreign cooperation in the manner of work and decision-making and unilateral moves of the BiH Defense, the Council of Ministers announced.
Tegeltija sent the decision on the dismissal of the Minister of Defense of BiH to the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH.
Earlier today, the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH sent a letter to the Minister of Defense with a request to repeal the Decision on the implementation of measures and activities on the organization of military exercise “Manjaca 21”, which postpones the military exercise planned by the BiH Armed Forces and the Serbian Army from October 9-16.
In the letter, Tegeltija pointed out, among other things, that the reasons for postponing the implementation of the military exercise “Manjaca 21” have no basis, and stated that if the BiH Defense Minister does not act in the same way, he will be forced to act in accordance with the powers of the Council of Ministers Chairman.
Milorad Dodik demanded the removal of Defense Minister Sifet Podzic for “disrespecting the BiH Constitution”, because he canceled a military exercise of the Serbian Army and the BiH Armed Forces in Manjaca near Banja Luka, and such a decision can be made by the BiH Presidency in charge of foreign policy.
A statement from the Cabinet of the member of the Presidency of BiH states that Podzic violated the Constitution of BiH with this arbitrary decision.
As further stated in the Constitution of BiH, it is explicitly stated that official (diplomatic) action against other states or international organizations from a position for which a state official of the appropriate rank objectively knows or must know that the Presidency did not take a position or approved it, ie that it does not belong to the scope of authority granted to it (previously: generally or ad hoc) by the Presidency.
The Ministry of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has postponed a military exercise planned by the Armed Forces of BiH (AFBiH) and the Serbian Army in Manjaca from October 9th to 16th this year. The exercise was postponed due to the epidemiological situation.
“We regret the cancellation, given that we have been jointly planning this exercise for more than six months. The Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Serbia remains a partner to BiH and Republika Srpska (RS), with the desire to achieve joint activities in the future,” it was announced by the Serbian Ministry of Defense.
As it was found out unofficially, the Ministry of Defense of BiH has postponed this exercise due to the small number of vaccinated members of the AFBiH.
This year’s tactical exercise “Manjaca 2021” is planned at the training ground on Manjaca, which should be an indicator of the development of good bilateral cooperation between the Ministries of Defense of BiH and Serbia, as was emphasized at the meeting of Ministers Sifet Podzic and Nebojsa Stefanovic last month.
This was supposed to be the first exercise of these two armies on the territory of BiH, although their cooperation is long-term within other programs and missions.
