Atlantic Council President: Two key things for BiH - abandon divisions and join NATO

Professor Dijana Gupta is the president of the Atlantic Council of BiH. With headquarters in Washington, the Atlantic Council is a very influential non-governmental organization in the world that promotes NATO's interests. In an interview with the Patria agency, Gupta talks about Bosnia and Herzegovina's path towards the largest military bloc in the world, and why she believes that the country's accession to NATO will solve all the burning problems of the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

NAP: You are working on promoting the idea and essence of NATO, which are preserving peace and developing democracy. Accession to NATO usually means economic development and investments. What other benefits are there?   

Gupta: If we concretize the matter, and if, for example, you take the example of Živinice, an average municipality in the Tuzla Canton, especially in terms of unemployment rate, there is the former airport and the former IFOR base Dubrave. When BiH joins NATO and if NATO expresses interest in reopening its base there again, that municipality can expect improvements and development of infrastructure, opening of new facilities, and improvement of services, which will lead to the creation of new jobs, as well as jobs related to working in the base itself.

NAP: In 2006, BiH signed the Partnership for Peace, and in 2009, the Membership Action Plan (MAP), where it committed to working on tasks to activate the NATO Action Plan. The registration of non-perspective military locations in BiH to the Ministry of Defense of BiH has been completed in the Federation, while in the RS it is a matter of court dispute. BiH is destroying unstable ammunition, participates as a state in peacekeeping operations... What other reforms are on BiH's path to NATO?

Gupta:  For any further functional foundation and development of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is necessary to first achieve political consensus regarding the renunciation of the policy of dividing the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then consensus regarding accession to the North Atlantic Military Alliance – NATO. These two political goals are the minimum common denominator that will be the foundation for further political, social, cultural, and economic dialogue in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosnia and Herzegovina's entry into NATO is the most significant political, security, and military issue for the entire region.

Upon full membership in NATO, Bosnia and Herzegovina will also assume certain obligations, including paying membership fees of 2.7 percent of the budget annually. This membership fee covers the costs of NATO's military and civilian budgets and infrastructure.

If you want specifics, partner post-accession obligations for BiH include the formation of an infantry-mechanized battalion, and then a whole brigade, a special forces unit, a CBRN unit, an engineering company for horizontal structures, a field hospital, transport companies, and four transport helicopters. In addition, the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina will have to conduct training for air observers and make its air defense resources available. Furthermore, we will have the obligation to equip facilities for the support and accommodation of armed forces personnel, as well as further arrangement of perspective military facilities for the reception of allied forces and consolidation of storage space for ammunition, etc...

These are all obligations that fall under the task of the BiH Ministry of Defense. I sincerely hope that Minister Pendeš is aware of these post-accession obligations and is actively working on their realization in this preparatory phase so that our membership in NATO does not catch us unprepared.

NAP: Three years ago, you said you were optimistic and that BiH would join NATO in two years thanks to the current BiH Presidency. We know that progress towards NATO is slow. Why were your predictions not fulfilled?   

Gupta: I am an optimist by nature and I believe in people, so I also believed in Minister Pendeš, who also stated this officially at one of the Ministry of Defense press conferences after taking office. So, you should ask Minister Pendeš that question. I would also be very interested to know what her answer would be to what stood in the way on that path?

NAP: There is talk about the rapprochement of Russia and the USA. Has the global policy towards the Balkans and BiH changed? Where is BiH now and how close or far is it from NATO? Does NATO want the Balkans to join with the same intensity as, for example, eight years ago at the Tallinn summit?

Gupta: Things are constantly changing on the geopolitical level. Bosnia and Herzegovina was a hot spot during the nineties, and given the rhetoric of our political elites, the international community can rightly be concerned about the situation in BiH.
The fundamental problem is the credibility of state institutions, because we do not fulfill the obligations we undertake, therefore we cannot be a credible partner to Russia, let alone NATO. Their interest in BiH varies, sometimes it is greater, sometimes smaller, depending on the current developments in relations between the superpowers. Russia's strategic interest in BiH exists solely to prevent and slow down our entry into NATO. But for that, we as a state must show credibility and fulfill our obligations; we must have politicians who know how to negotiate and reach consensus on such important issues. Only then will we be equally interesting to both sides, and divided and entrenched in our exclusiveness, we are not interesting to anyone except for any kind of political manipulation that our political elites use for their short-term goals.

NAP: The essence of NATO is to maintain peace in countries, but also to bring peace where there is war. Bosnia and Herzegovina is being threatened again. Powerful units of some NATO member states are stationed here. Can you assume whether NATO would react in case of a threat to BiH's territorial integrity?   

Gupta: If we consider the Ukrainian crisis, we will see that NATO has provided guarantees to Ukraine, even though that country is not a full member of NATO, but it is an aspirant country. NATO sent 100,000 soldiers to the Russian border, conducted large military maneuvers along the border with Russia and Ukraine, provided Ukraine with all kinds of military, financial, and political assistance, responded diplomatically to every Russian provocation, and even militarily in case of frequent violations of the airspace of the Baltic countries. Therefore, NATO is ready to do everything to help an aspirant country, including BiH on its path to full membership in this largest and best military alliance in the world.

In the upcoming elections, whoever wins will have to make a concrete shift in policy. There must and should be consensus when it comes to BiH's strategic goals, and the priority is NATO and the EU. These are parallel processes in BiH now because we have lost a lot of time in harmonizing views.

Due to the collision of views in internal policy, which often lacks consensus on important decisions for BiH, we do not have a strong foreign policy either. We start resolving some strategically important decisions when it is already too late. That is why we have remained quite isolated in the Balkans. Until the policy changes course and makes a complete turn, BiH will remain a 'Princess and the Pea'.