After he invited French President Emmanuel Macron to visit Bosnia and Herzegovina and witness himself the situation regarding the returning jihadists as well as the country's counter-terrorism efforts, Bosnia Presidency Chairman Zeljko Komsic reiterated that the country had not experienced any problems with the foreign fighters and that there are far more dangerous risks that Bosnia is facing.

In a statement for the Financial Times, Komsic said that Bosnia had not experienced “any problems with the small number of foreign fighters” returning to Bosnia and that larger countries like France “have their own problems with various types of extremist ideologies and groups.”

A far more dangerous issue for the country than the returning jihadists, Kosmic stressed, is the “security risk of leaving Bosnia and Herzegovina outside of the Euro-Atlantic space and NATO membership.”

The statement comes a day after the French President marked Bosnia as “the time-bomb that’s ticking right next to Croatia, and which faces the problem of returning jihadists” in context of the European integration of the Western Balkans. 

Macron's interview with The Economist sparked reactions in Bosnia and amongst the analysts, who said the French president did not understand the Balkans and that his stances seemed to be grounded on ignorance, bias and arrogance.

Following the interview, Bosnia Presidency Chairman met with the Ambassador of France to discuss the issue and briefed him about the exact details concerning the number of returnees from foreign warzones.