We have no chance with dead diplomacy and timid politics: Bosnia and Herzegovina between the opportunities of the East and the obedience to the West!

By: Rasim Belko

About two years ago, I wrote that if the leading Bosniak politician had gone to China at that time and had a photo taken while drinking tea with some low-ranking official, more positive geopolitical winds would have blown for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

However, unfortunately, this has not happened to this day. Not because China is not interested in us, but because the political figureheads of the pro-Bosnian or Bosniak political leadership, both past and present, lack the courage to break free from the diplomatic boot of the West, especially America.

That is why Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a deadlock, and the sword of a Palestinian scenario constantly hangs over the fate of Bosniaks, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians, patriots.

The echo we witness through media reports after the visit of Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman to Beijing shows that the idea of a political tea in China was correct.

"Croatia wants Chinese investments, but also to export more to the Chinese market," Grlić Radman told his Chinese hosts.

I tried, but it is truly impossible to imagine someone from the pro-state political spectrum in BiH presenting such a stance in Beijing. Just as it is impossible to imagine the BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković going to Beijing and negotiating anything.

That cliché "our foreign policy is tied to the EU and America" will ultimately cost us, because the minister of an EU and NATO member clearly states in Beijing that he wants Chinese investments. When a Chinese investment somehow reaches Bosnia and Herzegovina, a rebellion arises to attack it, fueled by the millions pumped into our country by the leaders of Western (read: American) interests.

Who remembers the defunct project of the Tuzla Thermal Power Plant and Block 7 today? Nobody, because through a special war, primarily through the media and the creation of public opinion in Bosnia and Herzegovina, a narrative was forced that we must listen to, follow, and obey only the West! Such an approach has crippled Bosnia and Herzegovina's diplomatic capabilities and reduced us to Western charity, while natural and other resources extracted from Bosnian soil are cheaply sold to expensive Western markets.

It would be challenging to survey the leaders of political parties in Sarajevo, both in power and in opposition, about their thoughts on a possible diplomatic trip to China or another country in the East. It is pointless to ask the Foreign Minister; he is a product of American interests, and the fact that he collected people to take pictures with in the corners of Washington disqualifies him from serious diplomatic discourse. Those before him were no better, although they occasionally managed an excursion.

Unlike Sarajevo, Zagreb, as well as Belgrade, have no problem clearly defining their own interests, even though in the first case they are tied to NATO and the EU, and in the second, only to the Union.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is clearly an experiment in which those who come among the people under flashing lights, in expensive limousines and suits, behave like sycophants as soon as they encounter any official from the West. Because their political careers are more important to them than the state and its citizens, it is difficult to expect any visible change. At least for now!

However, information about Grlić Radman's talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the resolution of the equality of Croats in BiH should at least set off alarms in Sarajevo, if anyone in the capital has not already fled on an undeserved vacation!

Hina reported the following: "The two ministers discussed geopolitical issues, and the Croatian Foreign Minister emphasized that he spoke with his counterpart from China, a permanent member of the Security Council, about the importance of Bosnia and Herzegovina's stability and the equality of Croats as one of the three constituent peoples."

Therefore, far from our eyes, our fate was once again the subject of discussion between, on one side, those who are convicted aggressors and who still attack the sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, and on the other side, China, from which we unjustly flee due to American-European interests.

And stop the nonsense, the talk about inadmissible interference in BiH's internal affairs no longer holds water, especially after the tectonic shifts on the geopolitical plate.

Instead of lamenting while burying our heads in the sand, perhaps it is high time, before next year's elections, to ensure that we are represented by those for whom the interests of the state and citizens are a priority over the interests of other states, even if they are friendly.

Recently, a person told me that the first president of our country, Alija Izetbegović, used to say that Bosnia and Herzegovina is a bird that must flap both its wings equally, because if one slows down or stops, it's a problem.

This entire political entourage we have witnessed from Dayton to today has clearly neither heard nor understood that message. That is why our wing that we should flap towards the East is apparently tied, because according to the default American narrative preserved in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is militant, terrorist, or malignant!

At the same time, let me not be misunderstood, neither the Chinese nor anyone from the East would take care of our interests. But that is precisely the job of those who negotiate cooperation on our behalf: Because while the media, fed by American narratives, fed us nonsense about how dirty Chinese technologies would destroy Tuzla if Block 7 were realized, capital from the West felled our forests, polluted our springs, and destroyed our living space right near the capital.

Therefore, it must be emphasized once again that the upcoming elections carry fateful decisions and that it is time to recognize those who will decide in our interest, not to our detriment, and who will not bend to the whims of the West.

Because there is much good in the East, one just needs to go, see, and negotiate. Regardless of whether those in the West like it or not. Serbia is doing it, Croatia is doing it, why are we agreeing to self-handicap, try to answer that when you think about potential new political representatives in the state and system institutions!