We took notice of reports on the introduction by the US Department of the Treasury of unilateral restrictions on President Milorad Dodik of the Republika Srpska (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

We resolutely condemn this biased move. We regard it as yet more evidence of the outgoing Obama administration’s feverish attempts to artificially complicate international efforts aimed at achieving a post-conflict settlement in the Balkans and a number of other regions.

We consider the US arguments to be untenable and believe that the one-sided US actions are meant to artificially shift the entire responsibility for the loss of momentum by the stabilisation process in Bosnia and Herzegovina to Milorad Dodik and the Bosnian Serbs in order to hide their own miscalculations in past years on the Bosnian track.

We consistently proceed from the assumption that work with all parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina should be carried out strictly on the basis of respect for the country’s sovereignty and encouragement of the local leaders to engage in a constructive dialogue so as to find generally acceptable solutions to problems in compliance with the 1995 General Framework (Dayton) Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We call on our partners to renounce threats and ultimatums that are clearly causing damage to our joint long-term objective of ensuring stable democratic development and socio-economic prosperity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

We reaffirm our willingness to cooperate with the United States and other member-states of the Steering Board of the Peace Implementation Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to facilitate in every way the implementation of the Dayton principles of equality of the two entities – the Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina – and the three state-forming peoples – Bosnians, Serbs and Croats. We think it important to stay the course to phase out the defunct Office of the High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, as has been coordinated inside the Steering Board and for finally transferring all national power to the Bosnians.