Principal Deputy High Representative and Brcko Supervisor Dr. Raffi Gregorian has been in Washington meeting with U.S. Senators and Congressmen. PDHR Gregorian relayed both the High Representative’s assessment of the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as his support for initiatives before the US Congress that would facilitate Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations. As Brcko Supervisor, Dr. Gregorian also briefed Ambassador Roberts Owen, the President of the Arbitral Tribunal for Brcko, about how the refusal of one of the entities to meet its obligations under the Final Award is affecting efforts to end Supervision.
On the Senate side he met last week with Senators John Kerry, and Richard Lugar of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC); Senator Benjamin Cardin, Chairman of the US Helsinki Committee who is also on the SFRC; Jack Reed of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and key Senate staff. On the House side he met with Representative Russ Carnahan, member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-founder of the Congressional Caucus for Bosnia; Representative Nita Lowey, who deals with Foreign Operations, Intelligence, and Homeland Security issues for the House Appropriations Committee; Representative Chris Carney of the Homeland Security Committee; and majority and minority staff from the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Concluding this round of meetings in Washington PDHR noted strong bi-partisan support for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that Senators, Congressmen, and their staff are well informed and up-to-date about the actual situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. PDHR Gregorian noted that “Congressmen were focused on maintaining the peace, preserving past gains, and re-establishing the type of forward momentum towards NATO and the EU exhibited by earlier governments”. They highlighted that “the international community needs to ensure that its peace enforcement mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina can conclude in a way that ensures peace is enduring,” said Gregorian.