The foreign ministers of six Western Balkan countries will meet in London today to discuss the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This is stated in a statement by British Foreign Secretary Elizabeth Truss, who will chair the event.

The statement notes that the talks will take place against a background of "peak tensions in the region". The UN High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina [Christian Schmidt] warned that the country faces the most dangerous existential threat in the post-war period and there is a real prospect of further division and conflict. The UK is working with international partners to tackle the threat in the name of stabilization, in order to maintain the hard - won democratic progress of the last 26 years, the statement said.

The meeting in London will be attended by the foreign ministers of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, RN Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, as well as representatives of the United States and the EU. The current situation in the Balkans was also discussed by the foreign ministers of the G-7 countries last weekend in Liverpool, the British ministry said.

In early December, the British government set up a new diplomatic post - Special Representative for the Western Balkans to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was occupied by former NATO Military Committee Chairman Marshal Stuart Peach. Truss called his appointment a clear demonstration of London's desire to "uphold democracy and freedom" in the region.

On May 27, the ambassadors of the Peace Implementation Council Steering Board in Bosnia and Herzegovina (PIC SB) decided to appoint Schmidt as the new High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. At present, the Republika Srpska leadership does not recognize Schmidt's legitimacy.

On July 23, outgoing High Representative Valentin Inzko amended the country's penal code to ban "denial of genocide and praise for war criminals" in Srebrenica in 1995. In response, Republika Srpska's leadership said in protest it would not participate in the BiH government, and then announced its intention to withdraw its consent for a joint army and a joint judicial and prosecutorial council. As a result, Republika Srpska plans to rebuild its own army in a few months, said Milorad Dodik, a Serbian nationalist and member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency.

Bosnian Serbs Started Paving the Way for their Own Army Today

/BGNES

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