BiH HAS SHOWN INCOMPETENT IN DEALING WITH THE MIGRANT CRISIS

Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic assesses that respective institutions of BiH were completely helpless in front of the migrant wave that overwhelmed the country and BiH showed absolute inability to handle the issue of migrants.

"The situation where a huge number of illegal migrants keeps coming in shows that the country is not able to guard its borders and a country which is not able to protect its borders, cannot protect anything else", Prime Minister Cvijanovic said.

Besides, Prime Minister Cvijanovic warned, a chaotic situation has been created with migrants left on their own, pointing to numerous problems and the lack of coordination between the governance structures within BiH which presents an additional risk.

"When one hears what BiH officials are saying, an ordinary person is puzzled by absolutely contradictory information about the number of migrants. It is not clear how many people have entered the country and how many have remained", the Prime Minister said.

According to Ms. Cvijanovic, the problem came about because the EU closed its borders and most of those people were heading toward the EU and BiH was not their ultimate destination.

"A separate problem is that once you accept those people and treat the situation as a purely humanitarian issue, it remains unknown how long, months or years, they would stay in this territory. For BiH which had gone through a war fairly recently and which is going through a difficult period and has not yet achieved some high economic goals, it represents an additional burden to take care of a few thousand or tens of thousands of people, lacking the information about their origin and general concern about who might be problematic in terms of health or security situation", the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska explained.

Ms. Cvijanovic reiterated the position of the Republic of Srpska Government that the borders should be protected in a better way.

REPUBLIC OF SRPSKA IS GRATEFUL TO RUSSIA FOR ITS SUPPORT

The Republic of Srpska is grateful to Russia for its political and economic support, the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska, Zeljka Cvijanovic says.  

"We have really good relations with Russia, both politically and economically. We are committed to cooperation with Russia and there is mutual political understanding. We are grateful to Russia hence it, many times thus far, acting through its representatives in the UN Security Council, protected the position of the Republic of Srpska, not because they wanted to defend it by heart, but because we presented them with data and evidence of the factual situation in BiH. We are very grateful for this kind of political treatment", Prime Minister Cvijanovic said.

The Prime Minister also said that we should strive in continuity toward business partnership and economic cohesion. 

"Of course, we are a small economy in comparison to Russia but I am positive that despite this fact, we can develop good relations. We are grateful to Russia for joining the privatization process of the oil industry in Republic of Srpska 10 years ago which is now an economic giant which had been almost extinguished during the war but has been "revived" now due to investments. This is very significant for the economy of the Republic of Srpska", the Prime Minister said.

Answering the question "which country would she visit first after being elected the President", Ms. Cvijanovic said that the first country would be Serbia and then immediately after that it would be Russia.

"In any case, Serbia is the first place to go as the President of the Republic of Srpska. I am also sure that Russia would be just  after that and I must say that Republic of Srpska is committed to cooperation and should have contacts with all who want to understand our position. I highly appreciate the efforts of the Russian Federation and excellent cooperation that we have. That is why Russia is always high on our list of priorities but we also need to be open to contacts with all others", the Prime Minister of the Republic of Srpska Zeljka Cvijanovic said.