Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić held talks on Monday with Milorad Dodik, a senior Bosnian Serb political figure, during which Dodik said the constitutional order in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been “collapsed.”
Dodik, leader of the Serb-nationalist Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD), posted on social media after the meeting that he had discussed with Vučić “political issues important for the Serbian people” and economic cooperation that he said would strengthen ties between Serbia and the Serb-majority Republika Srpska entity.
In his statement, Dodik asserted that the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended Bosnia’s 1992-95 war and underpins the country’s constitutional structure, has been undermined because of what he described as the Sarajevo political establishment’s failure to respect the rights of Republika Srpska. He also said courts had become “a tool of retribution” and that Republika Srpska had the right and duty to protect itself and ethnic Serbs.
Vučić, in his own social media post, said the leaders spoke about the role of the Serbian community amid global geopolitical changes, without elaborating on Dodik’s comments about Bosnia’s constitutional framework.
The meeting comes amid a long-running political crisis in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where Dodik has been at odds with state institutions and international officials over central government authority and the implementation of the Dayton accords. Earlier legal actions against Dodik, including an arrest warrant issued by Bosnia’s prosecutor for alleged violation of the constitutional order, have heightened tensions between Sarajevo and Republika Srpska authorities.