Neutral Serbia and RS moving toward NATO - "dangerous"

Neutral Serbia and RS moving toward NATO - "dangerous"

BANJA LUKA -- Milorad Dodik says the public opinion in the RS is against NATO, adding it would be dangerous id Serbia remained neutral while the RS "moved toward NATO."

The president of the Serb entity in Bosnia (RS) told the Russia-based website lenta.ru that a decision about joining NATO should be made by the people of the RS in a referendum - but that currently, the public opinion is "against such integration."

"That's logical, if one takes into account a whole range of historical reasons. One of these facts is that the NATO 20 years ago bombed Serbs in Bosnia, and then Serbia," said Dodik.

Noting that Serbia, after the NATO attack in 1999, declared military neutrality, Dodik said that "it would not be good and would be a dangerous situation" if Serbia remained neutral, while the RS moved toward membership in the western military alliance.

"Another important detail is that one of the main countries that carries out the idea of integrating Bosnia-Herzegovina into NATO is Turkey, which Serbs do not see in a positive light. It is a bad sign," said the RS president.

In addition, Dodik added, "people do not see any benefits of such integration, but only vague promises."

According to the media in the Serb entity, he further said that NATO is "not a politically neutral organization" while "on top of everything, Bosnia-Herzegovina has the problem of complex political relations within the country."

"All of this leads to the fact that the public opinion in the Serb Republic does not support integration into NATO," explained Dodik, stating that he, as president and a politician, "must keep that in mind."

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