While neighboring countries are arming themselves and introducing mandatory military service, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) continues to receive weapons from international donations, while military service is a sensitive political issue. International representatives comment, there will be no conflict, for all other security challenges there are EUFOR and NATO.
Starting next year, mandatory two-month military service will begin in the Republic of Croatia. In Serbia, mandatory military service could last 75 days, and after the Serbian president gave his consent to the bill two days ago. Confirmation will follow in the government, after that in the assembly. In BiH, the Law on Defense abolished military conscription in 2006, which contributed to the creation of a single Ministry of Defense and a unique, modern and operational Armed Forces, is the answer of the BiH Ministry of Defense to the question about mandatory military service in our country. Antonio Prlenda, a military-political analyst, comments that this is a sensitive political issue for which there is simply no money in BiH.
“The problem is the financing of the Armed Forces. Due to various political circumstances, there is a lack of funding and it is difficult to expect that it will rise to such a level that all those who are required to come to the barracks”, said Prlenda.
But military service is not the only thing that is similar for our neighboring countries. The modernization of weapons, from the procurement of fighter planes, anti-aircraft defense systems, multi-barrel rocket launchers, is something that BiH, considering the budget available to the Ministry of Defense, can only dream about. Defense budgets look something like this,Serbia, 2.7 billion, Croatia 1.2 billion euros, BiH 351 million BAM. There are also plans in BiH to modernize the Armed Forces, but there are also blockages.
“We have a modernization plan and it foresees what needs to be acquired in order to improve the Armed Forces. The plan was adopted by the Presidency in 2017 and should be implemented by 2027, but really little has been done in this regard,” said Aleksandar Goganovic, Deputy Minister of Defense.
Edin Forto, President of Our Party says: “We are not equipped and the blockade from Republika Srpska (RS) is the reason for that, there is no talk about the budget,” he said.
While BiH is lagging behind, others are arming themselves, andthe High Representative was asked whether the balance in armaments provided for by the Dayton Peace Agreement has been disturbed, Schmidt says there is no danger of conflict.
He repeated that NATO is there, but so are the forces of the European Union (EU).
“They are aware of the need to maintain stability in this country, I would say – we are very well prepared. NATO is ready to be here if it turns out that the EUFOR Atlhea mission is not enough,” Schmidt stressed.
While we trust in NATO, BiH’s path towards NATO is getting longer. And this was very clearly stated in his recent blog by the American ambassador to BiH, Michael Murphy, who sent a sharp criticism to the BiH authorities. The reform program was regressed and turned into an annual “check-list”. The Law on Defense, Murphy reminded, obliges the authorities to “within their own constitutional and legal competence, carry out the necessary activities for the admission of BiH to NATO membership, but they are clearly not doing that.”
“We have an official deadlock on the NATO road. We sent the national reform action plan in 2020, 2021, 2022, and we had official cooperation. There is no such plan for 2023 and 2024. We see that Ambassador Murphy also brought up some inconsistencies in the work of the Ministry of Defense. These are all indicators that something needs to be done”, comments Denis Hadzovic from the Center for Security Studies.
Action should also be taken in relation to the region. Foreign policy analyst Antonio Prlenda adds that the stabilization of relations can be achieved through greater military cooperation, especially in a situation where aggressive politicians, as he says, create an arms race when it comes to the natural modernization of the army.
“With military cooperation, the current situation can be alleviated so that the armies in the region would train together, but not in a way that politics abuses it. Professionals should be allowed to do their job,” said Prlenda.
On the path to stabilization, Prlenda warned, it is necessary to modernize the Agreement on Subregional Arms Control, which includes restrictions, supervision and mutual inspections in all segments.
