US RECOGNIZED SRPSKA'S PURSUIT OF SOVEREIGNIST POLICY

BELGRADE, OCTOBER 2 /SRNA/ - Serb member of the BiH Presidency Željka Cvijanović said that the administration of US President Donald Trump has recognized that Republika Srpska, with a population of one million, is no threat to the great United States, and that Srpska wants to pursue its sovereignist policy and have strong institutions.

"Finally, to have what America gave it through the Dayton Peace Agreement, namely broad autonomy and the right to operate and develop its institutions," Cvijanović said.

Speaking about the major turnaround in relations with the US following the arrival of the Trump administration, Cvijanović said that even people who had retired from the State Department said they had never seen anything like it happen.

In an interview with RT Balkan, Cvijanović said she was grateful to the US for its sense of the political and constitutional reality, as well as for the future of BiH.

Speaking about her recent meeting with Susie Wiles, White House Chief of Staff and adviser to US President Donald Trump, Cvijanović said they discussed the real problems facing BiH, what the region looks like, the goals of the Trump administration and ways to establish a stronger economic dimension of cooperation.

"It was an opportunity for me to express my gratitude for the realistic approach of this US administration, which takes into account the needs of all three peoples in BiH. I believe they understand that in multinational communities such as this one, you cannot maintain a role as a credible interlocutor if you favor only one side and persistently work to the detriment of the others," Cvijanović said.

She noted that Republika Srpska officials had spoken out against the scheme and attempts to drain all the blood from Republika Srpska and destroy its institutional capacity, as well as against removing all those who had spoken about deviations in the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement and all those who had raised their voices against unconstitutional solutions.

"All this time, we have lived in an environment where a foreigner believes he has the right to impose laws, although he has no such right under the Dayton Peace Agreement. Thank God that someone removed the one who went too far and brought Dodik into the judicial proceedings," Cvijanović stressed.

Commenting on claims from political Sarajevo that Republika Srpska paid United States to change its approach toward BiH and Republika Srpska, Cvijanović categorically rejected such theories, stressing that it was unfair to the US administration to suggest that US policy could be bought, and that what was involved was a political approach adopted toward BiH and Republika Srpska.

"We are a big team and at the helm we have party leader Milorad Dodik. Depending on the position we hold, some of us are more or less exposed on domestic or foreign policy issues. Lobbyists were not key to this understanding with the US that we established or to the lifting of sanctions, among other things," said Cvijanović, who is also an SNSD vice-president.

On the contrary, she pointed out, it was a matter of charting a path in advance regarding potential interlocutors who, viewed from the perspective of the period when Republika Srpska was facing sanctions and pressure, would become potential points of contact.

"We got almost everything right and demonstrated our strong desire for something to change in the attitude toward all of us here at a time when we were being punished, while the people who are now making decisions about us in America were in the opposition," Cvijanović said.

She stressed that there were many people in the US administration who understood what was happening in BiH and that she had been surprised by their awareness of the extent of the deviations, as conveyed to her by very important figures in the Trump administration.

"Unlike the bureaucratic level, which mostly sticks to stereotypes and a preconceived framework that was unfavorable to Serbs, there were political figures who were aware of the extent of the manipulation surrounding the Dayton Peace Agreement," Cvijanović said.

She also expressed gratitude to people who held high positions on behalf of their countries and were able to gain access where officials and representatives of Republika Srpska could not, namely the highest-ranking officials of the Trump administration.

"Many good things happened. We were engaged in a major diplomatic offensive. We never lost faith that good things would happen, and we worked with great energy. We wrote letters, spoke with many people and wanted them /the Americans/ to return to something that was a fair approach toward Republika Srpska," Cvijanović said.

Speaking about relations between Republika Srpska and Israel, she recalled that they practically date back to the establishment of Srpska, stressing that she was grateful to Israel for its understanding in the past and for the support it provides to Republika Srpska.

"We have been building these relations for decades. They were not key to what happened in America, but I am grateful to them for being someone who could say something positive about Republika Srpska and for having said that positive thing," Cvijanović said.