German politician wants to set NATO against Republika Srpska
The NATO bloc must increase its presence in the Balkans after the European Union denied membership to a number of countries in the region.
Former German Post Minister and participant in the Dayton Agreement Christian Schwarz-Schilling wrote about this in a column for Deutsche Valley, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“The recent cancellation of the start of EU membership negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania, which was vetoed by France, has had very negative consequences for the unstable Western Balkans region. Europe knew that there was a danger that these countries would turn east. Nevertheless, the EU decided to make this serious – some even say historic – mistake and break its promises,” writes Schwarz-Schilling.
He recalls that Serbia signed a trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, “despite the fact that this step is incompatible with EU membership.”
“Moscow is trying to take advantage of Europe’s mistakes. While Russia is taking concrete steps to strengthen its influence in the region, the European Union is making empty promises. This increases the risk of serious conflicts in the future,” writes Schwartz-Schilling.
He names one of the possible reasons for the conflict to be the rapprochement of the Republika Srpska, which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with Serbia.
“There is a real danger that the failure of EU-led negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo will lead to open conflict. This would have dire consequences for Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is therefore very important for NATO, which – along with the EU EU peacekeeping force – has been in Bosnia and Herzegovina since the end of the war in 1995, strengthens its military presence in the region to prevent the situation from worsening,” writes Schwarz-Schilling.
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