Dodik: Future of RS is to be unified with Serbia

Dodik: Future of RS is to be unified with Serbia

Opening the Days of Srpska (RS) in Serbia, he said the Serb entity wants to see Serbia "strong and capable, because in that way it is strong and good for the RS."

"We want the RS because we do not believe, and are surviving the impossibility of living within Bosnia, which was created by the desire of international factors as evidence of dealing with or tearing apart of the Serb people, and the desire to subjugate and denigrate it," said the RS president.

Dodik stressed that the entity stands in solidarity with Serbia "in an nearly natural way" when it comes to the country's efforts "not to support unjustified sanctions of the international community against Russia."

As he said, the RS will recognize and know what the interest of Serbia is, as he is convinced that Serbia recognizes what is in the interest of the RS, and navigate the future by building peace, "because it is natural."

"The Serbs, with their two states, the RS and Serbia, now can be an advantage for stabilizing regional peace and development," Dodik said, and added that the gathering in Belgrade should be understood in that way, noting a similar event should also be organized in the RS.

Serbian President Tomislav Nikolić, who spoke before Dodik, in his welcome speech said that borders between states are an "iron barrier", but that such borders "cannot stop time, change, identity, love, thoughts, ideas and culture" .

"They burned our books, destroyed our churches and libraries, but failed to impose to the world an image of Serb barbarians without a homeland, whose territory anyone who is strong enough, is entitled to," Nikolić said.

The Days of Srpska in Serbia event was first organized in 2013, and this year's edition will run until September 10 in Belgrade and Novi Sad.

The opening event in at the Kolarac Endowment was attended, among others, by Serbian Parliament Speaker Maja Gojković and RS Prime Minister Željka Cvijanović, while the Banja Luka Philharmonic Orchestra performed a concert.