14.12.2017.

We truly respect Bosnia and Herzegovina and truly love the Republic of Srpska

Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin, who is on an official visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, has met with the officials of the Republic of Srpska, President Milorad Dodik, Prime Minister Željko Cvijanović, and Minister of Industry, Energy and Mining Petar Đokić in Banja Luka, today.

Participants in the meeting also discussed the increase in the volume of cooperation with the defence industry of the Republic of Srpska.

- I have taken today the opportunity to inform President Dodik, Prime Minister Cvijanović and Minister Đokić that the Supreme Commander Aleksandar Vučić and the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia has secured the money for the proper overhaul of our engines, both tank and aircraft engines, in the amount of RSD63 million for Special Purpose Engine Factory Pale and RSD280 million for the Orao Overhaul Institute in Bijeljina, Defence Minister Aleksandar Vulin said.

Vulin said that in Serbia they are specifically working on the implementation of the policy with the aim to allow the development of the enterprises in the Republic of Srpska and the defence industry of the Republic of Srpska.

- We are specifically working on allowing the Srpska defence industry to grow, operate and employ new people. This money will help our army in terms of obtaining the appropriate overhauled engines, both tank and aircraft engines, but will also employ people in Bijeljina and Pale, and we will continue to conduct exactly such a policy, Minister Vulin said.

- President of the Republic of Serbia had never missed a chance in his foreign affairs activities to say how much we care about the Republic of Srpska, and on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, I repeat our orientation and our care for the lives of the Serbs regardless of where they lived, and certainly for Serbs in the Republic of Srpska, Minister Vulin said.

He reminded that Serbia is a guarantor of the Dayton Agreement and that Serbia insists that it must be unconditionally respected and implemented.

- Accordingly, we respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Bosnia and Herzegovina and we consider that the Republic of Srpska has its place, which cannot be diminished in any way or jeopardized by any kind of subsequent interpretations. We find every agreement between the two Entities and three peoples acceptable. Anything that does not work in that direction can be extremely dangerous and have implicit consequences, which none of us wants. Our greatest interest is peace and stability in the entire region, our greatest interest is successful Republic of Srpska, and the Republic of Srpska can not be successful unless there is no peace and stability everywhere around us. That is exactly why we are trying to help Srpska’s economy in this way exactly and show how much we are interested in its everyday life, in the economic prosperity of all citizens of the Republic of Srpska, and that we will continue to implement such a policy. The state of Serbia is committed to peace and stability and for that we need the help of the entire region. As the President of the Republic says, and I always support this statement of his, we truly respect Bosnia and Herzegovina and truly love the Republic of Srpska, Minister Vulin concluded.

President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik personally thanked Minister of Defence Aleksander Vulin for the attention he showed to the Republic of Srpska in any need for assistance.

“We always find a really open approach of the minister and all his personnel in the Ministry and the Armed Forces, and this is something that gives us strength and makes us happy for the simple reason that we have friends who understand the circumstances in which we live and work”, Dodik said.

President of the Republic of Srpska Milorad Dodik pointed out that this was an opportunity to improve the cooperation regarding the possibility of engaging certain capacities that the Republic of Srpska has at its disposal, which was the main topic of the discussion.

In his address, the President of the Republic of Srpska also referred to the Dayton Agreement.

- We are thrilled by Serbia’s several times repeated and firm stance respecting the Dayton Agreement and , of course, internal structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, its territorial integrity, but that it has never, never failed to say that it is the matter of internal agreement and that the internal agreement in Bosnia and Herzegovina must be respected, as foreseen by the Dayton Agreement. And here we see a serious chance of support, which implies the fact that we are a factor envisaged by the Dayton Agreement to solve problems at the level of Bosnia and Herzegovina. I have informed the Minister and the delegation on the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina - President Dodik said.

Dodik also spoke about the economic development of the Republic of Srpska, which, in his words, is moving in a positive direction.

- In this respect, after 2014 and large floods that have caused great damage, we record the growth of gross domestic product, and this will happen this year, too. Serbia is our biggest economic partner. Our companies are successfully cooperating and this is the period of the most intensive cooperation in all areas between the Republic of Srpska and Serbia. And of course, this is also reflected in the area and the contacts that we have in connection with the engagement of certain capacities such as Orao, such as the engine factory in Pale, Kosmos and some other factories that we need to revive. It should be said that the public already knows well that Serbia has succeeded in raising its dedicated industry in terms of its very expansive presence on foreign markets, and that it records huge, huge contracts in the production of equipment and weapons for third markets, President of the Republic of Srpska said.

He stressed that the Republic of Srpska supports the policy that Serbia is implementing, which relates to military neutrality.

- The Republic of Srpska has recently adopted a declaration on military neutrality in its parliament. We have that right because it is our position, within Bosnia and Herzegovina. We do not want to have any border on the Drina which would be the border of some military alliances. We want to preserve integrity on this issue and we do not hide this, we said that clearly. In this respect, we are following Serbia, President Dodik said.

Dodik said that the Republic of Srpska is neutral.

- We can not go beyond the fact that NATO bombarded the Serb people on two occasions and that it was without the mandate of the world organization on this issue, and that we cannot recover from the damage they caused by the bombing and the sanctions they imposed on us as a nation and as a state. Psychologically speaking, it is difficult for a people to mentally accept someone who did so, regardless of everything, Dodik said.

During his two-day visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Minister Vulin met with the Minister of Defence of Bosnia and Herzegovina Marina Pendeš in Sarajevo, yesterday, with whom he discussed the current security situation in the region and ways to improve defence cooperation and visited the Peace Support Operations Training Center in Butmir and Special Purpose Engine Factory a.d. Pale.