Republika Srpska President Siniša Karan said that the decision by the BiH Ministry of Foreign Affairs to deny an overflight request for Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut amounted to the privatization of BiH institutions, particularly foreign policy.
Karan said such actions could only strengthen the determination of the Serb people to fully use their capacities at the BiH level.
He also argued that the Ministry had violated the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations with its decision.
“They have undermined good diplomatic relations with Serbia, and this is a highly inappropriate political move, but it goes much further than that. In this way, they want to demonstrate their negative, intolerant and even hostile attitude toward Serbia,” Karan told reporters in Banja Luka.
He said that such moves by political Sarajevo could only encourage Serbs to make greater use of all their capacities at the BiH level, where, according to Karan, no relevant decision can be adopted without the Serb vote.
“This also reminds us that we must make even greater use of our special relations, as well as our right to ensure that no such decision can be made without the constituent people – in this case, without the Serb people,” Karan said.
Karan also criticized the timing of the decision, which came as Republika Srpska and Serbia were jointly marking the Day of Serb Unity, Freedom and the National Flag.
“This act is intended to separate the national identity of Republika Srpska from Serbia and prevent us from celebrating our common holidays,” Karan said.
He added that Serbia, on the other hand, had demonstrated diplomatic restraint by continuing to call for respect for the Dayton Peace Agreement.
BiH Foreign Minister Elmedin Konaković rejected the overflight request on Sunday for the aircraft that was due to bring Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut to Banja Luka, saying the request had not been submitted on time.
Source: RTRS
