An archive photo
MINSK, 20 March (BelTA) – Belarus is ready to support and help Republika Srpska as much as it can, Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he met with Chairwoman of the Republika Srpska Council of Peoples of Bosnia and Herzegovina Srebrenka Golić, BelTA has learned.
“I am pleased to welcome you in Belarus. I want you to know that we are closely related, we are your friends, your kin, you have come to your Belarus. As I tell my friends, no topics are off-limits for us, we are willing and able to do for you whatever we can and whatever you are interested in,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said.
The head of state noted that he is well aware of the situation in Republika Srpska and was closely following the developments unfolding in that region in the 1990s, when the Dayton Agreement was signed.
“I saw serious flaws in this agreement. And I told my counterpart and friend Slobodan Milošević [President of Serbia in 1989-1997, and President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1997-2000] to be very careful when concluding this agreement at the behest of the West, the Americans. I warned that it could bring a lot of trouble to the people. Something like this really happened. The disagreements in your shared state did not go away. They were always on the boil, and at some point the situation exploded,” the president said.
“But you should know: we will stand by you, support you and help you as much as we can today. I am saying 'as much as we can', because we are not close by, we do not share a border with Bosnia and Herzegovina and your people, but we have the same roots. We remember this. Therefore, you can count on us,” the Belarusian leader emphasized.
Aleksandr Lukashenko is confident that the Russian leadership understands and assesses the situation in a similar way. “We know both the past and the present, so we are on your side,” he added.
During the protocol part of the meeting, the head of state rarely needed interpretation, as he perfectly understood most of what the guest said in Serbian, which speaks volumes about the affinity of the peoples of Belarus and Republika Srpska.
Republika Srpska is an entity (formation) within Bosnia and Herzegovina. In line with the 1995 Dayton Agreement, it occupies 49% of the country. The economic mainstays of Republika Srpska are industry and agriculture. The most advanced sectors of the economy are the energy complex, timber processing, metallurgy, mining and textile industry. The tourism potential of Republika Srpska is quite big due to amazing nature and many tourist attractions. The most popular types of tourism are mountaineering, spa and wellness retreats, religious tourism, hiking and ecological tourism.
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