DODIK: SRPSKA MUST BE FOCUS OF ALL ACTIVITIES

DOBOJ, DECEMBER 17 /SRNA/ – SNSD President Milorad Dodik has stated today that the continued development of Republika Srpska must remain the central focus, stressing that BiH is a broken and disintegrating country surviving only on palliative measures.

"Our obligation today is to place Republika Srpska at the center of all our activities and to disregard what is happening in BiH, so that it does not drain our strength," Dodik told reporters in Doboj. He noted that Republika Srpska is today adopting its budget and an investment program worth more than BAM four billion for the coming year. "We will continue building our highways, hydropower plants, and thermal power plants. We will continue to build everything our people need, despite all the obstacles," Dodik said. He stated that Sarajevo has blocked every project wherever it could, citing Buk Bijela, the Trebinje airport, and the gas pipeline from Serbia to Banja Luka. "And now, when they have the opportunity to build a gas pipeline from Croatia to Sarajevo, the southern interconnection, we say we have absolutely nothing against that, but we also want to build what connects us to gas markets in other directions," Dodik said. He noted that this could proceed easily and reasonably, without any real problems. "But when Sarajevo’s hatred and cynicism toward Republika Srpska and the Serbs enter the picture, nothing can move forward. We could have built the Trebinje airport long ago if it had not been contested," Dodik said. He reminded that the Buk Bijela Hydropower Plant, which had not been disputed for 40 years, suddenly became an issue once an arrangement was made between Serbia and Republika Srpska. "And it goes on. BiH is a burden and a ballast we need to rid ourselves of. We cannot continue to develop if BiH continues to treat Republika Srpska in this way," Dodik stressed. He said that nothing in the National Strategy of US President Donald Trump’s administration provides any guidance for the dissolution of BiH. "First and foremost, it is guidance to hold talks. But people in Sarajevo do not know how to communicate. They know how to listen. We reached several important agreements that could have relaxed the situation in BiH. When they leave Doboj or Banja Luka, where those agreements were reached, the next day nothing applies anymore. The same happens when something is agreed in Sarajevo, again, nothing applies," Dodik said.