Newly elected Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (UK), Liz Truss, visited Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) as the Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of May, and on that occasion sent several important messages. One of them was that the UK is a leader in providing support to BiH.
During her visit, Truss met with members of the Presidency of BiH, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and gave a speech in the Armed Forces of BiH Hall.
“I am glad that I came to see the situation in person and to be sure that the UK is a leader in supporting this very important country. I also welcome the position of Bisera Turkovicregarding the terrible Russian aggression against Ukraine. It is necessary that we work even harder in BiH to protect peace and prevent the country from returning to conflict,” Truss said after a meeting with BiH Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic.
She pointed out that history is a reminder of what happens when aggression is not opposed.
“The genocide in Srebrenica, the siege of Sarajevo, these are just two crimes that horrified us, so we said that this must never happen again in Europe,” Truss told at the time.
She explained there are signs of Russian meddling and that they are an open threat of returning to the dark days and that must be stopped.
This is a matter of the moment, we choose freedom and democracy, not negative influence and corruption. Today, theUK is the country that announces a new investment package for the Western Balkans in energy, infrastructure as an alternative to investments that lead to negative impacts,” said Truss and mentioned the 100 billion dollars of investments that the UKplans to invest in the Western Balkans.
“As Turkovic said, we want to work through NATO to strengthen security and consolidate the success we see in BiH. In addition to the situation here, we must monitor the issue of European security as a whole. We see Russian interference here as well, but the people of Ukraine also need our support as well as the support of the free world. We must be sure that we support those who bravely fight for their country,” Turkovic said about BiH‘s NATO perspective.
On that occasion, Truss also commented on the member of the Presidency, Milorad Dodik, who was sanctioned by the UK.
“We imposed sanctions on Dodik as well as others who work on destabilization. It is important for the future that we see progress in the economy, democracy. The UK clearly acts against those who seek to undermine progress and we call on all partners to act and ensure that those who undermine peace be held accountable.
What we see happening in Russia is the economy faltering, services that used to be available now are not, investments from the free world are being withdrawn. We have always said this clearly, sanctions take time. It is necessary to persevere in cutting off gas supplies from Russia to Europe because then Russia’s military machine cannot be financed,” Truss emphasized.
Together with the mayor of Sarajevo, Benjamina Karic, she visited the memorial to the murdered children of Sarajevo and laid flowers.
In a speech at the Armed Forces of BiH Hall, Truss emphasized that BiH is a reliable partner in the region that pointed to the illegal behavior of Russia.
“The future of BiH lies in sovereignty and self-determination, in a stronger partnership with NATO and countries like the UK,” Truss pointed out, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
