diplomacy
Baerbock in view of Russian attempts to influence Sarajevo
Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Alliance 90/The Greens) visiting Bosnia-Herzegovina with the members of the Presidency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (BIH). To her left sits Manuel Sarrazin (Alliance 90/The Greens), the Federal Government’s special representative for the Western Balkans. photo
© Soeren Stache/dpa
The Foreign Minister is continuing her EU promotional tour in the Western Balkans. Immediately afterwards we go to Paris. With you everywhere: a white elephant from Moscow.
The Federal Foreign Minister wanted to meet her colleague Elmedin Konakovic in Sarajevo. The day before, she had already had a conversation with members of the country’s state presidency. It consists of one representative each of the Bosniak, Serbian and Croatian ethnic groups: Denis Becirovic (Bosniak), Zeljka Cvijanovic (Serbian) and Zeljko Komsic (Croatian). The chairmanship rotates every eight months. The Federal Foreign Minister then had the High Representative of the international community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the German Christian Schmidt, explain the current situation to her.
“Bosnia-Herzegovina at a crucial fork in the road”
Bosnia-Herzegovina is at a crucial crossroads in the EU accession process, explained Baerbock. Last year, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations as soon as the criteria were met. On the way towards the EU, those responsible in Sarajevo must tackle the necessary reforms step by step.
The adoption of the law to combat money laundering and terrorist financing was such a European reform step, explained Baerbock. With a view to the local elections in the country in October, it is crucial that the electoral law reform is tackled with an integrity package. “Free and fair elections are the foundation of a democratic society,” she emphasized.
There are still no negotiations with Bosnia-Herzegovina about EU accession
Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina are among the so-called Western Balkan countries. This also includes Albania, Serbia, North Macedonia and Kosovo. The EU is demanding decisive reforms from the countries in order to achieve rapid rapprochement. In Brussels, Montenegro is seen as furthest along in the accession process. EU enlargement is not expected until the end of the decade at the earliest. Bosnia-Herzegovina has candidate status but is not yet in negotiations.
Divided Bosnia-Herzegovina
The country is divided into the entities called the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH) and the ethnic-Serb part Republika Srpska (RS). The president of the RS is the Serbian nationalist Milorad Dodik, who is seeking to secede from the entire state. Dodik is on trial in Sarajevo for causing decisions by the international community’s representative, Schmidt, to no longer be published in the RS Official Journal. Dodik recently visited Belarus’ long-term ruler Alexander Lukashenko and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin awarded him the prestigious Russian Order of Nevsky.
Against the background of Franco-German tensions after Paris
From Sarajevo, Baerbock wanted to travel to Paris for a working meeting with her French colleague Stéphane Séjourné. The recent tensions in German-French relations between Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and French President Emmanuel Macron are also likely to play a role in the conversation. At the weekend, Scholz defended his line not to send soldiers to Ukraine. He was reacting to a move by Macron, who recently made people sit up and take notice when he did not rule out such a deployment of Western ground troops.
The wiretapping scandal in the Bundeswehr is also likely to be discussed in Paris. On Friday, Russia released a recorded conversation between senior Air Force officers in which they discussed operational scenarios for the German Taurus cruise missile if it were to be delivered to Ukraine. There were no plans to inform the public after Baerbock’s meeting with Séjourné.