NATO Chief Mark Rutte to have numerous meetings in Sarajevo on Monday, address Faculty of Political Sciences UNSA

(Patria) - NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will be on an official visit on Monday, March 10, and is scheduled to meet with members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Denis Bećirović, Željko Komšić, including Željka Cvijanović. This is the first visit of the Secretary General to Sarajevo since he took office as NATO Secretary General at the beginning of October. However, while he was the Dutch Prime Minister, Rutte visited BiH in January 2024 together with the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.

Rutte will also meet with the NATO Commander in BiH, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of BiH Borjana Krišto, and the High Representative Christian Schmidt, RSE reported. ž

A discussion with the NATO Chief will be held at the Faculty of Political Sciences starting at 3 PM.

Rutte's visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina comes amidst a heated political and security crisis, after the National Assembly of Republika Srpska adopted four unconstitutional laws, signed by the first-instance convicted president of RS Milorad Dodik and published in the Official Gazette of RS on March 5.

The Law on Non-Application of the Law and Prohibition of the Functioning of Unconstitutional Institutions of BiH, adopted on February 27 in the RS entity, prohibits the work and operation of the Court and Prosecutor's Office of BiH, the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), and the High Judicial and Prosecutorial Council of BiH, which appoints all judges and prosecutors in the country.

Among the laws is also the one on a special register and public transparency of non-profit organizations, colloquially called the "foreign agents law," which, following the example of the Russian law, introduces strict control over the work of the civil sector in RS, as well as amendments to the Criminal Code of RS.

Dodik announced that SIPA's activities will be prohibited in the territory of RS, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of RS has issued a call for the transfer of SIPA employees coming from the territory of RS.

SIPA's headquarters are in Lukavica, and the number of employed Serbs and Bosniaks is equal (300 each), while the number of employed Croats is around 130.