Serbian President guaranteed support for Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina can always rely on and trust Serbia, we will continue to strengthen all our ties - from economic and cultural to linguistic and spiritual.
This was stated by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
On November 24, Aleksandar Vucic received in Belgrade the newly elected member of the Presidium of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) from the Serbian people, Zeljka Cvijanovic, and the President of Republika Srpska (RS, one of the two entities of BiH) Milorad Dodik. This was the first official visit of the leaders of the Serbs of BiH, and the main attention during the negotiations was paid to joint projects between Serbia and the RS - both infrastructural and cultural.
Aleksandar Vucic congratulated Zeljka Cvijanovic and Milorad Dodik on their victory in the recent elections.
“I would like to thank the people of the Republika Srpska for always being with their Serbia and caring for us as much as we care for the Republika Srpska,” said the Serbian President.
At the meeting, it was noted that trade turnover between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia is growing steadily, and in the first nine months of this year amounted to about 2,3 billion euros. Belgrade plans to become a key partner for BiH, with a focus on projects in the RS.
Zeljka Cvijanovic thanked Serbia for its participation in projects such as the airport in Trebinje and the creation of a memorial complex in Donja Gradina, the site of the massacres of Serbs during the Second World War by the Croatian Ustasha fascists.
In turn, Milorad Dodik said that it is necessary to work on the maximum possible integration of Serbia and Republika Srpska without violating the Dayton Agreements on BiH. According to him, Sarajevo is blocking many important projects for RS. Dodik also noted that “the international factor is putting additional pressure on Belgrade and Banja Luka in order to impose their own decisions on the Serbs.”
A day earlier, Milorad Dodik once again stated that the Serbs of BiH would block any attempt for Bosnia and Herzegovina to join NATO.
“We want to join the European Union - this is indisputable, but also the Republika Srpska made a sovereign decision that it does not want to be part of NATO. We also want and will cooperate with other large countries such as Russia, China and, of course, the United States, but we must take care, first of all, of ourselves,” he emphasized.
Serbian President Guarantees Support for Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina