Foreign minister Szijjártó warns of dangers of allowing Bosnian tensions to get out of hand

Belgrade/Sarajevo (MTI) – Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó expressed concern over recent conflicts and fresh tensions in the Balkans during a visit to Sarajevo on Thursday.

After meeting his Bosnian and Croatian counterparts as well as the three-person presidential body of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prime minister and several other ministers, Szijjarto expressed concern over “recent news of conflict and tension in the region”, adding that stability and peace in the western Balkans is also in Hungary’s primary interest.

Szijjarto said ensuring economic developments and speeding up the European integration process would be the best ways of handling conflicts between nations and ethnic groups “which are basically rooted in the past”.

“If we don’t help Bosnia in these processes, then the risk of conflicts and tension poisoning the country will grow, and if this becomes the case, the whole of the western Balkans could be destabilized, and this would mean a direct and serious security threat to Hungary,” he said.

With Bosnia’s membership application to the EU accepted, complex and substantial efforts are needed to complete this very important accession phase, Szijjarto said. Hungary will send an experienced diplomat to Sarajevo to help in the process as it has done with Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro, he added.

Hungary will also keep up its substantial contribution to the EU peacekeeping effort in Bosnia, where the deputy commander is Hungarian and Hungary provides of the third largest force of 163 men, he said.

Speaking of the economic help offered by Hungary, Szijjarto cited four important areas of support: to the recovery operation following the huge floods of 2014, 15 million forints (EUR 487,500) of support for flood-prevention programmes, 4 million forints to promote religious dialogue in a country where several faiths coexist, and an aviation agreement signed with the Bosnian transport and communications minister on Thursday. The latter is a preamble to Wizz Air launching its first direct flight between Budapest and Sarajevo on April 5, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI