The Standing Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly made a decision on a new status for countries aspiring to join the Alliance, and that Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) be designated as a NATO candidate. Where is our country on the NATO path, considering the conflicting positions of entity authorities, but also within the coalition at the level of BiH?
Political consensus regarding NATO integration is, by all accounts, an impossible mission in BiH. The granting of the status of a candidate for membership in NATO, for Our Party(Nasa stranka), is, along with the opening of negotiations with the European Union (EU), the most significant success of BiH on the international level. The President of Republika Srpska (RS) is categorical – we remain militarily neutral and BiH will neither be a candidate nor a member of NATO.
“BiH will not join NATO, especially bearing in mind the current procedure and laws in which the Parliamentary Assembly on the basis of the majority, led to make such a decision, needs to give its consent. There is no such agreement and there will never be,” explained Milorad Dodik, President of the RS.
“Just like Europeans, our future is NATO integration. The EU implies, first of all, a better standard, and NATO security. There is no one without the other,“ it was said from Our Party (Nasa stranka).
The ministers of defense and security confirm that the coalition partners at the BiH level have opposing views. While Zukan Helez points out that BiH is the closest of all the candidates to full membership, Nenad Nesic considers it a cheap political story and denies the aspiration towards the NATO alliance.
“The Euro-Atlantic integration of our country, prior to accession to the NATO alliance, is the key external interest of our country, and I will do everything, within the powers granted by law, to achieve this goal,“ noted Zukan Helez.
“It is emphasized by someone who has no idea what is happening. There is no NATO path to BiH, there is no internal agreement towards the NATO path,“ said Nenad Nesic, Minister of Security of BiH.
The ambassadors of Slovenia and Slovakia believe that BiH‘s cooperation with NATO is progressing, but that not all reforms have been completed.
“We believe that BiH should use all resources to join the NATO alliance,“ said Damjan Sedar, Ambassador of Slovenia to BiH.
“All the members that are in NATO have never fought among themselves, which is very important to emphasize,“ told Roman Hloben, Ambassador of Slovakia to BiH.
NATO is a powerful organization that is able to do everything and if it wants BiH will be treated uniformly regardless of the different attitudes between the entities, according to military-political analyst Neven Kazazovic.
“We are surrounded by all NATO member countries except Serbia. I think that NATO has a different starting point, which is to geostrategically secure the Balkans, and that means sticking to the Dayton Agreement literally,“ said Neven Kazazovic, military-political analyst.
Research shows that 60 percent of the citizens of the Federation, and only 11 percent of the RS, fully support membership in NATO. It is uncertain what will BiH politicians do to bring their positions closer together if the decision to give BiH candidate status is ratified at the end of May at the NATO Parliamentary Assembly session.
