Report by Lord Lancaster for NATO Assembly: Serbia and Republika Srpska threaten security, allies must act more decisively

(Patria) - The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as the advisory body of the North Atlantic Alliance, considered at its spring session in Sofia the report by British Lord Mark Lancaster titled “The Western Balkans: Renewed Security Challenges at NATO’s Doorstep”.

Regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina, the report states that political paralysis has the latent potential to undermine the Dayton Agreement, which has maintained a fragile peace among the country’s main constituent peoples for nearly 30 years.

“The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina recently warned of an ‘unprecedented level of attacks’ on the post-war order, primarily by Republika Srpska (RS), which is intensifying threats of secession from BiH entirely,” Lancaster stated.

He adds that in a region where almost all states and territories look toward the West for a Euro-Atlantic future, the problems in Kosovo and BiH must once again attract significant attention from the allies:

“Allies must confront the potential for broader destabilization that these challenges pose. The stalemate in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue and the tense political paralysis in BiH are preventing the progress of Serbia, BiH, and Kosovo toward EU accession processes; they remain a major factor of regional instability; they block effective regional economic integration and enable criminal networks to exploit the region’s weak institutions for trafficking in arms, drugs, and people,” Lancaster stated.

Furthermore, as he notes, the situation is complicated by the progress of corruption and weak state institutions that enable Russian and Chinese influence – while each of these countries has different goals in its regional influence, they are aligned in their broader anti-Western efforts, which include breaking allied consensus and blocking the consolidation of the Euro-Atlantic community.

“This report highlights the causes and current drivers of the main security challenges in the region and advocates for greater attention to resolving the dispute between Belgrade and Pristina and increased political focus on the political stalemate in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Key means for this are renewed efforts to facilitate EU enlargement in the region. NATO allies must also understand that their view of the region must change: KFOR must receive more support, and allies must find new ways and means to expand their military cooperation with the region to help reverse the regional security dynamics that are heading in the wrong direction at a challenging time for Euro-Atlantic security,” Lancaster emphasized among other things in the report.