DODIK: PUTIN TO CONSIDER PROPOSAL FOR ESTABLISHING COOPERATION COUNCIL AT PRESIDENTIAL AND PRIME MINISTERIAL LEVELS

MOSCOW, SEPTEMBER 29 /SRNA/ — President Milorad Dodik says that, during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, he proposed establishing a cooperation council at the presidential and ministerial levels of the Russian Federation and Republika Srpska, which would meet once a year and would be preceded by a joint session of the two governments.

“President Putin said that he would consider the issue, and I expect a positive response,” Dodik told media from Republika Srpska after the meeting. Regarding political issues, Dodik said that Republika Srpska remains permanently grateful to the Russian Federation for its activities in the UN Security Council. “The public knows that Russia did not support Christian Schmidt and that everything he has done is unacceptable to the Russian side,” Dodik said. He stressed that Russia considers it impossible to accept anyone’s imposed decisions and that the measures taken by Schmidt are null and void. “That is not an insignificant position when you bear in mind that Russia is one of the guarantors of the Dayton Accords. This positions us in terms of our efforts to continue fighting against this kind of injustice,” Dodik said. He pointed out that whenever BiH was on the agenda of the UN Security Council, Russia had always taken an objective position rather than a siding one. Dodik said that Republika Srpska has an issue with a BiH, which is not in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement. “Abolish the Court and Prosecutor’s Office, return our fiscal sovereignty, take everything that is provided for BiH under the Dayton Accords, and we have no issue with BiH. With any other BiH, we have an issue, and I believe there is understanding for that,” Dodik said. Dodik said that it was said at the meeting with the Russian president that Russia would facilitate procedures for Srpska to procure a heavy-lift helicopter for firefighting.