Military neutrality is our definitive position - Dodik

Military neutrality is our definitive position - Dodik

The Serb entity's public broadcaster RTRS is reporting Dodik told Srna agency - commenting on US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging the BiH Presidency to accept the national annual program of cooperation with NATO - that he learned about this letter from the media and that the concern of the Americans for the situation in BiH is continuous.

"They are trying to find anything to hang on to, but they will have to get used to our position in this regard. The RS is for military neutrality and against joining any military alliance," Dodik said.

He also reiterated that in terms of NATO and the action plan for membership in the organization, the position of the RS and his personal position is commitment to the RS National Assembly's resolution on military neutrality.

"I expect that representatives of the RS in the Council of Ministers will remain committed to the National Assembly resolution on military neutrality. Any other decision would go against the interest of the RS and would bring anyone who behaved in that way in a position to violate the decisions of the highest organs of the RS," said Dodik.

He added that BiH cooperates with NATO within the Partnership for Peace program, and that, in this respect, many common activities have been realized - but that these new demands are "something else."

"Referring to some earlier decisions is total confusion. If decisions have been made, why are they asking for new ones to be made? In any case, new decisions that imply moving closer to NATO will not happen, because the RS and the Serb people, for reasons we explained earlier, primarily because NATO bombed us and inflicted serious losses in human and material terms, cannot accept membership in that alliance," said Dodik.

He also assessed that even the NATO integration commission that dealt with this issue did not complete the job.

"All of this is confusing. Pompeo referring to a BiH foreign policy strategy adopted earlier by Mladen Ivanic is not an argument because that strategy is not legally binding," Dodik said.