Fri 18 March 2022:
The United States has denounced “dangerous” comments by Russia’s ambassador to Bosnia, who issued a tacit threat to the Balkan country over its proposed bid to join NATO. Bosnia has been divided along ethnic lines since a war in the 1990s that killed some 100,000 people.
The country is ruled by a rotating tripartite presidency, with Croat and Muslim leaders in favour of joining NATO, while the Serb leader says he supports military neutrality.
Earlier this week, Russia’s ambassador in Sarajevo, Igor Kalabukhov, said his country could “react” if Bosnia were to join the Western military alliance, invoking Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “If (Bosnia) chooses to be a member of anything, that is its internal business. But there is another thing, our reaction”, he said. “We have shown what we expect on the example of Ukraine.
If there are threats, we will react.” On Thursday, the US embassy in Bosnia hit out at what it called “threats”, calling them “dangerous, irresponsible, and unacceptable”.
Bosnia’s Komsic asks EU to consider granting it candidacy status
Last week, Bosnia and Herzegovina Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic has sent an official request to the European Union leaders, asking them to consider granting the country the candidate status. Komsic said in a note he sent to Brussels that this would be “another confirmation of the indivisibility and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
He also wrote that Bosnia’s EU candidate status would have a “series of positive effects on the overall security and stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and thus the entire Western Balkans region.”
He also assessed that “more than ever we need European unity and a clear signal that the Western Balkans is a part of Europe,” at this moment when a big country is using its military potential to occupy its neighbouring country.
“This vision of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans in the European Union is based on the Foreign Policy Strategy of Bosnia and Herzegovina,” he noted.
Bosnia and Herzegovina officially applied for the EU membership in 2016.
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