Russia is happy with a compromise on NATO in Bosnia
The Republika Srpska, which is part of the confederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with broad autonomy, managed to ensure that cooperation with NATO was limited to the signing of the Reform Program, and not the Action Plan for membership in the alliance, as the Bosniaks and Croats insisted on it. Russia considers such a compromise acceptable.
Russian Ambassador to BiH Petr Ivantsov stated this at a meeting with the Serbian member of the Presidium of BiH (the highest governing body of the country) Milorad Dodik, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“As far as I understand, the issues of the annual national plan and the NATO Membership Action Plan are currently not discussed in BiH,” Ivantsov said.
The day before, BiH emerged from a political crisis that lasted more than a year and was caused by the reluctance of Serbian politicians to sign a document opening up the prospect of joining NATO for the country. Now on December 4, the lower house of the BiH parliament must approve the composition of the Council of Ministers, RTRS TV channel reported.
According to the Vice-Speaker of the BiH Parliament Nebojsa Radmanovic, the lack of integration into NATO is a fundamental difference between the adopted Reform Program and the MAP. “There is no mention of a membership action plan in this 20-page document. So, we are not going to NATO,” Radmanovic said.
However, the document has not yet been published. Therefore, the opposition in the Republika Srpska parliament called for waiting for the text of the Program to be published in order to make sure that even a veiled movement into NATO would be excluded. Such demands, in particular, were voiced by the Serbian Democratic Party in the RS Parliament.
Dodik himself stated that, according to the agreements in Sarajevo, the Reform Program cannot yet be presented to the general public - it will be made public only if the composition of the Council of Ministers of BiH is successfully approved. Dodik emphasized that the Reform Program for BiH repeats a similar document signed earlier by Serbia, which declares military neutrality.
“Many important people of the opposition have this document, I sent it to them, but now they are creating a negative atmosphere associated with it... What is indicated in the Reform Program does not go beyond what Serbia already has... It will be available to the public,” – Dodik promised.
Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republika Srpska Nedeljko Cubrilovic believes that there is no reason for fear. “There is no reason not to believe what Dodik explained in his speeches in electronic and print media,” Cubrilovic said.
The current Minister of Foreign Affairs of BiH, Igor Crnadak, admitted that if the Serbs manage to block the receipt of the MAP, he will publicly congratulate Dodik, although he personally does not agree with this development of the situation.
“Because this would mean that the membership plan is buried for all time,” the politician noted.
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