Željko Komšić, the Croat member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina has summoned Krisztián Pósa, the Hungarian Ambassador to the country due to Hungary's suspected interference in the internal affairs of Bosnia, Hvg.hu They cite Balk.hu which writes that the Hungarian ambassador was summoned for a formal hearing after the Hungarian State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Levente Magyar publicly expressed his support for Milorad Dodik, the President of Republika Srpska on Monday. The office of Željko Komšić confirmed the fact of the formal hearing.
A local outlet, Klix.ba later reported that the Hungarian ambassador had been told that Bosnia and Herzegovina would not be approving the entry of Hungarian military and police forces into the country in the future. According to the paper, they will also submit a request with the Althea mission to withdraw the Hungarian contingent from the EUFOR troops in Bosnia and Herzegovina. They also write that the ambassador was told that
they were "particularly concerned about the statement made by Levente Magyar, according to which in the event of a conflict, Hungary would interfere in events in Bosnia".
The plane of the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade was not allowed to land in Bosnia and Herzegovina on Monday because the Bosnian Minister of Defense, Zukan Helez, had refused to grant approval. The minister wrote on his Facebook page that the plane was supposed to land first at the airport in Sarajevo and then at Banja Luka, but was not allowed to do so in the capital.
"I am firmly convinced that the military plane arrived from Hungary to provide some kind of support to Milorad Dodik and the clique gathered around him in destroying Bosnia and Herzegovina. My refusal to consent to the flyover/landing of the military aircraft has put me under enormous pressure from both the international community and domestic mediators over the past three days," Zukan Helez wrote.
In his post, the Bosnian Defense Minister also wrote that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán consistently provides support to Milorad Dodik, the President of the Republika Srpska, in his uprooting and undermining of the constitutional order of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He said that it remains unclear what the members of the Hungarian Counter-Terrorism Centre (TEK) were recently doing in Bosnia and Herzegovina. When contacted by Telex, the TEK said that its 70-strong detachment was in the Republika Srpska for training purposes as part of an international police cooperation programme.
Last Wednesday, the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, was sentenced to prison in the first instance on charges of refusing to take into account the decisions of High Representative Christian Schmidt. Levente Magyar commented on the event on his social media account saying: "We stand by the Bosnian Serb community which is being blamed, and reject any external pressure!" The State Secretary also said that the stability of Bosnia and Herzegovina is not threatened by Dodik, who has repeatedly threatened that the Bosnian Serbs would secede, but from "Western governments that are doing everything they can against peace in Ukraine".
"They are interfering in the country's internal affairs with colonialist, imperialistic arrogance, and continue to foment tensions that have led to war several times in the past," wrote Levente Magyar.
We previously wrote about the Orbán government's connections with the Bosnian Serbs, and the business and political interests in this article.
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