Izvor: N1 televizija, 05.Jul.2018, 18:11 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
Alliance for Changes promises to block Bosnia's NATO path
A coalition of parties representing Bosnian Serbs in the government said that it would not allow Bosnia to enter NATO while neighbouring Serbia is not part of the international alliance.
Bosnia's path toward NATO has been one of the main issues that two Bosnian Serb political factions have been arguing over for years.
Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik's Alliance of Independent Social Democrats >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << (SNSD) has been in power in the RS since 2014 but the Alliance for Changes, an opposition coalition of Bosnian Serb parties, won enough votes to represent the Serbs at Bosnia-Herzegovina state level in Sarajevo.
Dodik is President of the RS and Mladen Ivanic, from the Alliance for Changes, is a member of Bosnia’s tripartite state Presidency.
NATO remains unpopular with Serbs in both Serbia and the RS following Alliance air strikes against Bosnian Serb positions during the war in Bosnia and the 1999 air strikes against targets in Serbia during the Kosovo war.
The two fiercely opposed Bosnian Serb political groups will be competing for votes at the upcoming general election in October. Their opposition to NATO is part of their campaigns, and they have been accusing each other of bringing the country closer to the alliance.
"The RS has mechanisms to prevent it from entering NATO against its will," the Alliance for Changes said in a press release, adding that if the Serbs are outvoted on the issue, they would protect their national interests and veto Bosnia’ membership in NATO.
In October last year, The RS followed Serbia and declared its military neutrality, which means it will not participate in any military alliance.
The Alliance for Changes prress release accused the SNSD’s Nebojsa Radmanovic of signing a formal request for Bosnia to initiate its Membership Action Plan, a key step toward NATO integration, when he was a member of the state Presidency in 2009.
