SERBIA REMAINS THE STRONGEST GUARDIAN OF THE DAYTON ACCORDS

BELGRADE, NOVEMBER 16 – Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić stated, on the occasion of 30 years since the signing of the Dayton Agreement, that Serbia stands proudly and firmly behind this key document.

“As Foreign Minister, I proudly emphasize that Serbia has, through all these years, been—and remains—the most faithful guardian of its spirit. We support Republika Srpska as an equal party, we defend the will of the people to freely choose their representatives, and we warn against every idea of unitarization that would be a new catastrophe, threatening the fragile peace we have built together,” Đurić told SRNA. In a written statement, he noted that Dayton is not merely a political act but “a symphony of peace, balance, and respect for ethnic and national rights, which made it possible for a stable community of peoples to rise from the ashes of war.” “It teaches us that dialogue—not conflict—leads to prosperity. Serbia will continue to build bridges with Banja Luka, Sarajevo, and the international community, because our shared interest lies in a strong BiH that respects all its parts,” Đurić stressed. Even after three decades, Dayton, Đurić said, still shines as a beacon for the region. The General Framework Agreement for Peace in BiH, better known as the Dayton Peace Accords, was reached on November 21, 1995, at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, and formally signed on December 14 the same year in Paris. The Dayton Agreement defined BiH as a state composed of two entities and three constituent peoples. Annex IV established the constitutional structure of BiH and the division of competences both at the level of BiH and at the level of the entities. In the years following the signing of the Agreement, under pressure from the Office of the High Representative (OHR) and the BiH Constitutional Court, more than 80 competences were taken away from Republika Srpska and transferred to the BiH level.