(10 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina – 10 March 2025
1. Members of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency waiting to greet NATO Secretary General
2. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte walking into room, shaking hands with presidency members and standing next to them to pose for photos
3. Close of camera
4. Rutte and members of Bosnia’s presidency posing for photos, talking and walking into a meeting room together
5. Various of Rutte and Bosnia’s presidency members in meeting
6. Members of Bosnia’s presidency, Rutte walking out of meeting, approaching lectern
7. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Zeljka Cvijanovic, Serb member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency:
“There are issues that we agree about and issues that we disagree about, but what I wanted to stress in particular is that here, we must deal with causes rather than consequences. Dealing with consequences means that we are constantly and unjustly blaming one side rather than looking at root causes (of problems).”
8. Wide of Rutte and members of Bosnia’s presidency addressing journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Denis Becirovic, Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency:
“I told NATO’s secretary general that these are the most difficult moments (for Bosnia) since 1995, we had a chance to observe a brutal attack on the constitutional order of Bosnia-Herzegovina.”
10. Close of NATO flag
11. SOUNDBITE (Bosnian) Denis Becirovic, Bosniak member of Bosnia’s tripartite presidency:
“Destabilization of this part of Europe would only benefit Moscow.”
12. Rutte and Bosnia’s Prime Minister Borjana Kristo approaching a NATO and Bosnian flag display, shaking hands, posing for photos before walking away together
13. Close of Bosnian, NATO and EU flags
14. Rutte and Kristo shaking hands with members of Bosnia’s central government waiting in line to greet them
15. Various of Rutte in meeting with members of Bosnia’s central government
STORYLINE:
NATO’s secretary general on Monday pledged the military alliance’s “unwavering” support for Bosnia’s territorial integrity after a series of Bosnian Serb separatist moves raised tensions nearly 30 years after the end of a bloody war.
Mark Rutte spoke in Sarajevo after meeting the three members of the Balkan country’s multi-ethnic presidency, an institution established in a peace accord that ended the 1992-95 conflict among the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats after more than 100,000 people died.
His comments came days after Bosnian Serb lawmakers passed laws that barred Bosnia’s central judicial authorities and its police from operating on the territory of Republika Srpska, a Serb-run entity in Bosnia that encompasses about half the country. The other entity is a federation run by Bosniaks, who are mainly Muslims, and Croats.
The Bosnian Serb move was in response to the sentencing last month of the entity’s pro-Russia President Milorad Dodik, a longtime advocate of Bosnia’s disintegration. He was convicted of disobeying the top international envoy overseeing peace in the country.
Dodik, a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump who has faced U.S. and British sanctions for his separatist actions, has rejected the sentence — a year in prison and a six-year ban from state office — calling it anti-Serb.
The U.S. and key European nations have condemned Dodik’s actions, while Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed “solidarity.”
A European peacekeeping force in Bosnia, EUFOR, has said it was stepping up the number of its troops in response to the tensions.
“Destabilization of this part of Europe would only benefit Moscow,” Becirovic said.
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