SARAJEVO, 26. FEB. 2016 – Differences between the state government and Republika Srpska on issues from Kosovo to NATO are putting a coherent foreign policy at risk, experts pointed out. Divergences on Bosnia’s foreign policy priorities are growing between the Bosnian government and Republika Srpska, the country’s Serb-dominated entity. These differences were on display once again during and after the official visit of the Albanian President, Bujar Nishani, to Sarajevo, when he asked Bosnia to accept Kosovo’s unilateraly proclaimed independence. After Nishani declared that he wished “Bosnia would recognise Kosovo”, his words attracted instant criticism from representatives from Republika Srpska. Together with Serbia, Bosnia is the only former Yugoslav country that has refused to recognise the independence of Kosovo – because of opposition from Republika Srpska. “While I occupy this position, Bosnia won’t recognise Kosovo”, Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian member of the Bosnian Presidency, responded. Echoing the official Serbian line that Kosovo, according to the UN Security Council resolution 1244, remains Serbian territory, he added: “Kosovo and Metohija constitute an integral part of Serbia.”The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, made the same point, rejoining that the RS “has no intention of recognising Kosovo”. “Although Republika Srpska is just an entity inside Bosnia, they have different perceptions of their foreign policy goals,” Sead Turcalo, a political sciences professor in mainly Bosniak(Moslem) Sarajevo, told BIRN. “This is particularly true when it comes to sensitive issues like the recognition of Kosovo and NATO membership,” Turcalo noted. “With such internal differences in pursuing strategic goals, it is difficult to speak about a coherent Bosnian foreign policy at all,” he added. Milos Solaja, an expert of international relations at the University of Banja Luka, Republika Srpska continues to follow the official position of the Serbian government on such issues. “Republika Srpska will agree to recognise Kosovo only when Belgrade does”, Solaja observed, adding that “this approach is also true when it comes to NATO membership.” Bosnian plans to achieve closer integration into the alliance are complicated by the fact that Serbia does not wish to join, and because, as both experts note, Republika Srpska has deepened its relations with Russia in recent years. NATO granted Bosnia MAP – Membership Action Plan – status in 2010 but has conditioned its activation on the full registration of its military property, a task which is still incomplete. Dragan Covic, the Croat member of the Bosnian Presidency, told Bosnian media after Bosnia submitted its membership application to the EU that he expected MAP “to be activated for Bosnia at the next NATO summit in June”. However, the politicians in Banja Luka, the main town in Republika Srpska, are far from supportive of that idea. According to Turcalo, their mindsets remain heavily affected by the legacy of the wars of the 1990s in former Yugoslavia – and especially by memories of NATO’s military role in forcing Serbia out of Kosovo in 1999. “Politicians from the RS view with the [NATO] issue with emotions related to the role that NATO played in ending the conflicts in Yugoslavia”, Turcalo noted. NATO bombed Serbia without consent of the UNSC. “The Bosnian Serb parties link Bosnia’s NATO accession to Serbia’s policy towards the alliance, so it will be difficult for Bosnia to pursue this goal independently from Serbia,” he warned. Serbia maintains a policy of military neutrality between East and West.
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