On Sunday, the Croatian head of state made his approval of the final document conditional on making mention of the Dayton accords that define Bosnia and Herzegovina as the three constituent peoples: the Bosniaks, the Serbs, and the Croats and other citizens.
Milanović today explained that after Croatia’s request that the final communique should refer to the Dayton agreement as to the basis for the functioning of Bosnia and Herzegovina had been ignored for six days, the Croatian side was forced to say on Sunday that “we would oppose the consensus.”
Milanović told the press today while coming to the summit meeting that on Sunday, NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had called him, and the things were settled in half a minute.
However, it took six days until we made sure that the communique’s Bosnia and Herzegovina segment would mention the Dayton peace accords. This is a small thing for this summit, just a footnote, and a great thing for us, Milanović said.
All other things in the whole text of the 50-page final declaration have been acceptable for me as the head of the Croatian delegation, he added.
Milanović does not believe that he will manage to hold a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.
“I think he has more important things to do,” the Croatian president said.
Croatia had insisted on the three points in the declaration: the Dayton peace agreement, the constituent peoples, and the election reform of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Eventually, there will be no mention of the constituent peoples; however, it is covered by referring to the Dayton agreement that defines Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Bosniaks, the Serbs, and the Serbs Croats, and other citizens.
It remained unclear why the first draft failed to mention the Dayton peace accords.
NATO’s declaration in 2004 ceased making mention of the Dayton agreement, and since then, the Dayton accords have not been mentioned by inertia. However, the Croatian side has raised the issue since the Bosniak representatives started trying to eliminate the concept of the constituent peoples.
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