Bosnia-Herzegovina should apply to join BRICS, where it would stand a better chance of becoming a member than in the European Union, the secessionist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik said on Monday in his latest criticism of the West.
BRICS is a group of developing countries, currently including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which could soon expand to six more countries.
Bosnia became an official candidate for EU membership last December but has since made little effort to implement political and economic reforms that could unlock its path towards the EU and has yet to start accession talks.
In a post on social media platform X, Dodik, the president of Republika Srpska, the largely autonomous Serb entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, wrote that “there is an alternative to the European Union.”
“Considering that Brussels keeps sending new and unclear conditions for EU membership, I think BiH should apply for membership of BRICS. I believe it would be admitted sooner than in the EU”.
In the coming days, Dodik explained, the institutions of Republika Srpska will “send a proposal to consider this initiative to the central BiH bodies.”
Dodik is under US sanctions for undermining peace and democracy in the Western Balkan country, struggling to recover after a bloody 1991-95 war, and has steadily opposed EU sanctions against Russia.
He has been lukewarm towards the EU and has focused more on securing more autonomy for Republika Srpska at the expense of the central authorities in Sarajevo and the other half of the country, the Bosniak-Croat Federation.
Dodik has repeatedly said that Bosnia-Herzegovina has no future and has threatened to lead the Serb half to independence but has so far taken no concrete steps.
(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)
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