28 February 2021

Serbia respects the territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with which it builds best possible relations, but it sincerely loves the Republic of Srpska and will continue to help its people west of the Drina River, doing harm to none of the others, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikola Selakovicn said today.

"The political situation is such that we live in two different countries, but both in the Republic of Srpska and in Serbia, our Serbian people makes up the majority population. When you ask me how important cooperation is, it is as if you asked me if it is good for brothers to cooperate, for brothers to speak to each other and if it is good for them to live in brotherly love. Of course it is", Selakovic said for RTRS on the occasion of the anniversary of proclamation of the first Republic of Srpska constitution.

The Head of Serbian diplomacy pointed out that Serbia and Srpska, much like they jointly marked Sretenje - the Statehood Day of Serbia, also observed the Constitution Day of the Republic of Srpska together, because in that way the Republic of Srpska continued to foster the heritage of state-building awareness of the importance of law and legal system established by Milos the Great back in 1835, as well as, as he added, all of the later Serbian rulers who passed Constitutions important for the Serbian state and history.

"It is greatly important that, at one point, the then Prime Minister, and today's President of the Republic Aleksandar Vucic and the then President of the Republic of Srpska, and today's Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Serb member of the Presidency Milorad Dodik initiated a joint celebration of the dates that point to events and personalities from our history that are a truly important element of our national identity, national consciousness and culture of remembrance, which is extremely important and seriously participates in the development of modern Serbian identity and patriotism ", Selakovic said.

He is convinced that Serbia and Srpska would continue to jointly celebrate important holidays in the future as well, and thus show that they are one - a single people, wherever and in whichever state system they lived.

To be aware that we are Serbs. We do not insult others or do anyone harm, but we love and respect our people, because without that self-respect we will not have the opportunity to show respect to anyone else, the Serbian Foreign Minister concluded.

Source: Tanjug