Source: United Nations (video statements)
“While the overall security situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina remains stable, potentially disruptive tensions remain an issue of concern,” the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina said.
Briefing the Security Council in New York today (12 May), High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina Christian Schmidt said, “We are witnessing deliberate attempts to deconstruct state-level institutions by blocking them and preventing them from performing the responsibilities they were created for.”
Schmidt outlined four priorities for the current year. “The preservation of the institutional order established under the Dayton Peace Agreement, restoration of institutional functionality, a resolution of the issue of apportionment of state property and ensuring the timely introduction of election technologies ahead of the General Elections in October 2026,” he said.
The briefing, Schmidt’s last before his anticipated departure, came days after he announced his resignation. “Under the prevailing circumstances, I took my personal decision to end my mandate as High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina based on the Dayton General Agreement for Peace and several United Nations Security Council’s Resolutions and which I have received by Decision of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council in 2021,” he said. “The process to appoint my successor has begun and I plan to depart my role in June.”
Denis Bećirović, Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, addressed the Council under rule 37, warning that the country had narrowly avoided armed conflict in the past year. “A very difficult year 2025 is behind us. The anti-Dayton policy of the leadership of the entity Republika Srpska brought Bosnia and Herzegovina to the brink of armed conflict. The war scenario was avoided thanks to institutional and responsible action in the legal and foreign policy domains,” he said.
Bećirović added, “Bosnia and Herzegovina has fulfilled the conditions to receive an invitation for membership in NATO. Our results would have been even better if there had not been constant obstructions and blockades from the entity Republika Srpska.”
Turning to the question of responsibility for the country’s political crisis, the Presidency Chairman said, “The problem of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not High Representative, but rather the anti-Dayton policy that openly advocates the destruction of the Dayton Peace Agreement and Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
He also said, “Advocating ethnic divisions in Bosnia and Herzegovina is not a policy. It is a direct threat to peace.”
Also addressing the Council under rule 37, Serbia’s Permanent Representative Radomir Ilić reaffirmed his country’s support for the peace framework. “Serbia reaffirms its consistent and principled position of respect for the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina in accordance with the Dayton Peace Agreement, which remains the cornerstone of peace, stability and constitutional order in the country,” he said.
Ilić added, “The issue is not centralization versus decentralization nor functionality versus protection. What is needed is precisely what the Dayton Agreement Peace Agreement has already prescribed: constitutional balance and functionality through consent.”
He concluded, “Serbia believes that the future of Bosnia-Herzegovina lies in the hands of its legitimate domestic actors. Dialog, compromise and mutual understanding among them are indispensable.”
Russia’s Deputy Permanent Representative Anna Evstigneeva said, “We recall that the Bosnian issue remains on the agenda of the Security Council under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter, and there has been a long-standing practice of approval of High representatives. This did not apply to Christian Schmidt.” She said, “Schmidt never had, nor does he currently have the right to speak on behalf of the international community, nor to send any documentation to the Security Council.”