94th NATO PA Rose - Roth Seminar and the NATO PA Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group Session begins in Sarajevo

94^th NATO PA Rose - Roth Seminar and the NATO PA Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group Session began today, in the building of the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina (PA BiH), in the presence of highest officials of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The three-day conference, jointly organized by NATO PA and the PABiH, is attended by BiH Presidency Chairman Mladen Ivanić, members of the Collegium of both PABiH Houses, members of the PABiH Delegation to NATO PA, members of the working bodies of the PABiH in the area of ​​defence and security, as well as PABiH representatives and delegates.

Welcoming the participants, among them the Minister of Defence, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Armed Forces of BiH and the General of NATO Headquarters in BiH, as well as numerous experts and guests from the defence and security sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the region, Chairman of the Delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH in NATO PA Nikola Lovrinović expressed his satisfaction with the fact that Bosnia and Herzegovina had the honour to organize such an eminent event with more than 150 representatives of NATO PA countries in the region, the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Lovrinović expressed his expectation that the seminar participants will actively go through all topics as defined by the agenda over the next three days and point out to challenges and solutions related to the Euro-Atlantic integration process of the Western Balkan countries.

Addressing the participants of the 94^th Rose - Roth seminar, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Šefik Džaferović recalled that Bosnia and Herzegovina has had a successful defence reform, by which single Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH Armed Forces) were established, and whose members today are representatives of all peoples and citizens of our country. He emphasized that the current legal solutions adopted in the context of this reform defined a clear position of Bosnia and Herzegovina on its path towards full membership in NATO, which is one of its two main strategic objectives today. Referring to the recent visit of the NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Džaferović pointed to the necessity of faster resolution of issues related to perspective military property and its land registration at the Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces of BiH, which would enable our country to activate NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP). In this regard, the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly concluded that the stability of the EU is unthinkable without the stability of the Western Balkans and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as an important country in the region.

NATO PA Vice President Sverre Myrli expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the Rose-Roth seminar is being held in Sarajevo for the fourth time, but also stressed that for the first time representatives of NATO PA Middle East and the Mediterranean countries participate in its work in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Myrli pointed out that NATO PA wants to send a strong message through organization of this seminar about the participation of this body in achieving the safe future of the entire Western Balkan region, and expressed his belief that the seminar will further inter-connect the participants in terms of Euro-Atlantic integration over the next three days.

During the introductory part of the seminar, the participants were also addressed by the Ambassador of the Swiss Confederation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Andrea Rauber Saxer, who stressed the importance of democratic oversight and control of defence - security sector in the region. In this regard, she stressed the great role that the Geneva Centre for Civil Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) had in this process during the previous period.

The introductory part of the 94^th Rose - Roth NATO PA seminar and session of the NATO PA Mediterranean and Middle East Special Group ended with the presentation bofy Professor Florian Bieber from the Centre for South East Europe University of Graz on transition challenges of the region and its Euro-Atlantic path. Agenda of the seminar scheduled two panels for today, where there will be a discussion on the political attitudes in terms of the full membership of regional countries in NATO alliance, as well as on the promotion of understanding of the Alliance and the elimination of prejudices concerning the NATO activities. (End)