CVIJANOVIĆ: WASHINGTON VISIT WILL BOOST TRUST, REPUBLIKA SRPSKA ON PATH TO RECOGNITION

BANJA LUKA, FEBRUARY 8 /SRNA/ – Željka Cvijanović, the Serb member of the BiH Presidency, has stated that the visit to the United States had been substantive and that it would help strengthen trust and relations, as well as present the real situation in BiH in a realistic manner.

"Republika Srpska is making good progress on that path toward the truth," Cvijanović said. She pointed out that Republika Srpska is building relations with everyone and is on a good path to being recognized as a stable environment and a partner that can be trusted. She stressed that this is a time of good understanding and that discussions with the administration of President Donald Trump can be conducted in a relaxed manner. Cvijanović stated that Republika Srpska and the United States share the same values. "In Republika Srpska, we want to see genuine sovereignty that belongs to the peoples, true democracy that provides for institutions to make decisions on behalf of citizens, as well as the protection of voters’ rights," Cvijanović said. She emphasized that Republika Srpska favors a relationship in which it can build partnerships and discuss developments in BiH. "Republika Srpska defends its constitutional capacity, does not want to take anything away from anyone, but also does not allow anything to be taken away from it, and wants the people to be the ones who decide," Cvijanović said in an interview with RTRS. She noted that she is a great optimist and that she is particularly encouraged by the alignment of views on how society should function, which values should be preserved, and what kind of environment should exist for doing business and for state development. "I especially want to emphasize that this is a relationship in which we can speak freely, which did not exist before," Cvijanović said. She pointed out that many meetings were held with the aim of achieving better understanding and jointly benefiting from it for the good of citizens, whether in terms of economic cooperation or political understanding. Cvijanović said that partners from the Bosniak political corps misuse every international contact to speak against Republika Srpska, its officials, institutions, and the majority views of the Serb people. "It is not our mission to smear others; we speak about phenomena that have accompanied the development of BiH from the war to today, about abuses, and our interlocutors want to hear that," Cvijanović said. She added that the mission is not to allow Republika Srpska to be spoken ill of anywhere in the world and that there are enough arguments for that. "We are now doing this with the United States, and I am grateful to the US administration for its willingness to hear everyone and for showing, for the first time, that it wants to have the same approach toward everyone in BiH, as indicated by the lifting of sanctions," Cvijanović said.