Pendeš: The message from NATO is encouraging, we have an incentive for further progress

Minister of Defence of BiH Marina Pendeš, commenting on the meeting of NATO member states' foreign ministers held on Friday in Brussels, said that the ministers' message regarding the activation of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for Bosnia and Herzegovina was motivating and encouraging.

- Perhaps it is not the message we wanted in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but it is a message that was realistic to expect. Namely, after the meeting, the NATO Secretary General announced that Bosnia and Herzegovina is still expected to fulfill the conditions for the activation of the Membership Action Plan (MAP). It is significant and very important to me that, in addition to current issues of global interest and importance, which NATO foreign ministers dealt with at yesterday's meeting, such as relations with Russia and the situation in Afghanistan and the southern Mediterranean, the assessment of Bosnia and Herzegovina's progress in fulfilling the conditions for activating MAP was also a relevant issue. All our efforts and results achieved so far in registering immovable military property, as well as in other areas, have been recognized and acknowledged.

Pendeš further states that the fact that the decision on activating MAP was not made yesterday simply means that the close monitoring of progress in BiH and the process of consultation and decision-making on this issue among the Alliance members continues.

- For me, this is an encouragement and an incentive for even greater engagement and stronger efforts, and as the Minister of Defence, I will do everything to achieve further progress of BiH in the process of European and Euro-Atlantic integration, in intensified cooperation with our NATO friends and partners - Pendeš concluded.

We remind you that NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that BiH must register military property to the state in order to have full control over the Armed Forces. The process of registering immovable military property mostly relates to the FBiH, while the authorities in the BiH entity do not want to do it. So far, 31 out of 57 locations have been registered to the state.