Moving Bosnia and Herzegovina back onto the right path requires political will and a common commitment among political leaders, High Representative Valentin Inzko said in Washington yesterday.
“In recent years, the main BiH political leaders have lost the unity of purpose they had started to show,” the High Representative said. “That unity of purpose had made it possible for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina to look at a real possibility of integration in the EU and NATO, but leaders have not built on earlier achievements.”
Speaking to policymakers and academics at a forum organised at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington, the High Representative emphasised that there is a way out of the present deadlock.
Noting that political leaders from all sides have proclaimed Euro-Atlantic integration as the strategic direction for Bosnia and Herzegovina, he said the same leaders “must abandon the nationalist agendas that have failed and concentrate instead on three areas where they can certainly agree – the EU, NATO and the economy.”
The High Representative described the United States as “a long-standing friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina” and he said this friendship is reciprocated by BiH citizens who remain grateful for the US role in ending the conflict of the early 1990s, as well as the generous support they continue to provide to help the country advance towards full Euro-Atlantic integration.