Republika Srpska will seek to be included in an alliance with Serbia and Hungary, said the leader of this Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, on Friday.
Dodik said that this request will be presented at a session of the Government of Republika Srpska on Saturday.
“Republika Srpska should never accept to be part of the NATO alliance. Tomorrow we have an expanded session of the Government of Republika Srpska, and we will request to be included in a military and security agreement with Serbia and Hungary. We have the right to do this,” Dodik said in Banja Luka.
However, the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina prohibits the entities of the country from having the authority to conduct foreign and military policy. This right belongs only to the central institutions of Bosnia.
According to the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation are entities that make up Bosnia, and they do not have the powers of a state.
The Constitution allows entities to make agreements with other countries and international organizations, but with the approval of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia, which may legislate that such consent is not required for certain types of agreements.
They are also allowed to establish specific parallel relations with neighboring countries, but only in accordance with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The Hungarian government, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has focused its attention on Republika Srpska for years, rather than on all of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It also helped Dodik’s government with a loan from a Hungarian state bank.
Orban, his party, and his officials met exclusively with state officials in Bosnia and Herzegovina until 2019.
The first meeting between Dodik and Orban in June 2019 paved the way for “direct links between Hungary and Republika Srpska,” as described by the Hungarian prime minister, which later evolved into an economic cooperation program, reports REL.
In 2021, Orban blocked the German initiative to impose European sanctions on Dodik for undermining Bosnia’s institutions.
Dodik is under sanctions by the United States and the United Kingdom for this and for corruption allegations.
Hungary is the only EU member state that aligned itself with Serbia and the authorities of Republika Srpska in the UN General Assembly and voted against the adoption of the resolution on the Srebrenica genocide in May 2024.
