Serb leader of Bosnia visits US months after sanctions end

Milorad Dodik, the Bosnian Serb leader, met with senior US officials in Washington this week, several months after the Trump administration removed sanctions imposed on him for actions that threatened Bosnia and Herzegovina’s postwar peace agreement.

Dodik, accompanied by other Republika Srpska officials, including Acting President Ana Trisic Babic, held meetings with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Speaker Mike Johnson and White spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

After meeting Hegseth, Dodik wrote Thursday on X that the defense secretary “understands how essential strength, principled leadership, and the defence of Christian values are to preserving freedom and the dignity of nations worldwide.”

Separately, Zeljka Cvijanovic, the Serb member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, met Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau. According to the State Department, Landau underscored the US’ interest in “expanding economic cooperation and highlighted the completion of the Southern Interconnection gas pipeline as a strategic energy priority.”

Earlier this month, Dodik and Babic visited Israel, meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Dodik, first sanctioned in 2017 for undermining the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement and again in 2022, was sentenced last year to one year in prison and barred from politics for six years for defying international oversight.

Known for his frequent secessionist rhetoric, Dodik has repeatedly argued that Bosnia should adopt a new political agreement or separate entirely.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli