PM in Mostar, meeting with Bosnian presidency members

PM in Mostar, meeting with Bosnian presidency members

Vucic then spoke with the Croatian member, Dragan Covic.

Vucic is in Mostar on the occasion of the opening of the 19th International Economic Fair Mostar 2016.

He will also meet with representatives of the Serb community in this town, as well as Serbian Orthodox Bishop Grigory of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, and visit the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity.

Other officials expected to address the ceremony at the fair today are Director of the Mostar Fair Dalfina Bosnjak, Mayor of Mostar Ljubo Beslic, current chair of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bosniak (Muslim) representative Bakir Izetbegovic, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic, and Deputy Turkish Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus - as a representative f the fair's partner country.

After the opening and touring the event, Vucic will meet with the Izetbegovic, by this ending his one-day visit to Mostar.

The meeting of top representatives of regional countries comes after two Hague Tribunal verdict, which caused a stir in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia, and in the wake of Croatia's blockade of the opening of a chapter in Serbia's EU accession negotiations.

"The stability of the region is something we need to take care of and we need to understand each other more and better," Vucic told the Politico website ahead of his trip to Mostar.

In an interview with the Sarajevo-based television OBN last night, he said he "has a right and an obligation under the Dayton Agreement to take care of the Serbs in the Serb Republic" - the Serb entity in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Vucic said that the ruling in the Hague trial of the first RS president Radovan Karadzic - which found him guilty of war crimes and genocide - represented no basis for "a different" legal and political treatment of the entity - "and everyone knows it."

According to Vucic, Serbs and Bosniaks "must understand they will live together for many years still" and that Serbia and Bosnia are "of huge importance to each other and among the most important trading partners."

He asserted that the Western Balkans region has a good future by pointing to "a prosperous possibility" of uniting the economic markets of the former Yugoslav countries that are not EU members.

Vucic explained that he was "not calling on the Balkan leaders to unite their states, but their economies" and that such an arrangement would offer more than what CEFTA - the regional free trade deal - offers now.

His message to citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina was that "Bosniaks and Croats must know they do not have an enemy in Serbia."

The Serbian Chamber of Commerce, as well as several companies from Serbia, and the country's Tourist Organization, all have booths at this year's Mostar Fair.