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Bosnia and Herzegovina's Republika Srpska unwilling to join NATO

In February 2017, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Bosnia and Herzegovina and called on the country to accelerate efforts to join the alliance

BELGRADE, October 26. /TASS/. Republika Srpska, which is part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is unwilling to join NATO, the entity’s president Milorad Dodik said on Thursday.

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"There is no doubt that sooner or later we will have to make a decision [on joining NATO] at the Bosnia and Herzegovina level, but we are eligible to have our own position," he said. "We don’t want the River Drina to become NATO’s border. The Dayton Agreement has nothing to do with this issue, which concerns us - the people who live here, we are involved in decision-making, and we have stated that we want to be military neutral," he added.

Republika Srpska’s parliament earlier passed a resolution on neutrality towards military unions as the first step to holding a referendum on Bosnia and Herzegovina’s NATO membership. Dodik strongly supported the parliament’s decision saying that "NATO membership is not what we choose."

In February 2017, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Sarajevo and met with Bosnia and Herzegovina President Mladen Ivanic, calling on the country to accelerate efforts to join the alliance and be ready to make compromises.

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