Dodik and Covic together against NATO

The President of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, is a politician who should always be read between the lines. Earlier today, he stated that Republika Srpska would cease activities related to the implementation of the MAP (Membership Action Plan for accession to NATO) for BiH.

The decision on the MAP was issued by the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH in 2005. Dodik's SNSD also voted in favor of the MAP. That was when BiH embarked on a path of becoming a NATO member.

As the MAP was signed by all three sides at the state level, any unilateral declaration by the entity assembly could not have any legal value. Any unilateral action is not enough to undo the agreement from 2005. Bosnia and Herzegovina cannot be stopped by the lesser half of the state on its path to NATO. Decisions of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH cannot be changed on a whim.

It was Dodik who imposed the implementation of the MAP upon Republika Srpska, and now he is trying to take a step back. He says: 'The NATO Alliance is supporting only one side in BiH, the Bosniaks, so RS will reject all their proposals even though it is the NATO Alliance'.

This is not about supporting NATO – it is about supporting BiH on its road to becoming a NATO member. Dodik has revealed that Dragan Covic's HDZ supports SNSD's stance. It seems that Dodik has received the official stance that HDZ is against NATO just like SNSD.

Therefore, if this is HDZ's stance about NATO accession, how come the Republic of Croatia, which controls HDZ BiH, as a NATO member, is supporting HDZ BiH's opposition to NATO membership?

Dodik also established that there have been attempts to 'snatch away the immovable properties of RS, especially the garrisons, via the Court of BiH'. That was a legal solution and not seizing the properties. Due to illegal actions in RS, some issues have to be taken to court.  

Dodik made another absurd statement following his meeting with Serbia's Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin. He stated that 'RS does not want to have its border on the Drina River that would also be a border of some military alliances'. So Dodik talks about 'borders of some military alliances' on the Drina River. What does it mean? Was that about genuine neutrality of Serbia or about Serbia joining some new military alliance such as a Russian bloc? One has to read between the lines each time Dodik speaks.

The key argument of Dodik's destructive behavior is in his statement that NATO bombed the Serb people. There was no mention, however, of the judgments of the international courts, the International Court of Justice and the Hague Tribunal, which convicted Republika Srpska of crimes. Dodik is the president of the territory ethnically cleansed by crimes against humanity and genocide.