The USA is the only strategic partner and the best friend of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but Bosnia has to do a lot more on maintaining that relationship because the lobbying against it in Washington is still present, President of the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) Ajla Delkic told N1.

According to Delkic, the Representative Office of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, is lobbying against Bosnia and Herzegovina together with some other organisations, not only in Washington but elsewhere.

“They're not meeting only the congressmen in Washington but they also work at the local level – meeting the mayors and governors, because they know they will sooner or later end up in Washington. You are funding them through VAT. Maybe the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina should look into that because they (the office) are not dealing only with economic issues,” warned Delkic, speaking of the activities of the RS office in the USA.

“They work on the revision of the history of Bosnia and Herzegovina, deny the genocide in Srebrenica, etc. Entities should not be dealing with foreign policy, this falls under the jurisdiction of the Presidency and they should lobby to have those offices closed,” she added.

Bosnia and Herzegovina should have a strategy and plan to stay close to the USA, stressed Delkic, noting that pro-Bosnian diaspora is doing everything in its power to have it done, often confronting the RS office in DC.

“They always have their own version of the truth, which is inaccurate, and they keep promoting it. The Serb diaspora is large and they have their own organisations that promote their own version of history, they have a strategy and plan. We also have to do deal more with the truth and have some strategy and plan. This requires money that has to be invested in order to lobby against such actors,” said ACBH President.

Delkic — who is at the helm of this non-governmental organisation that promotes the interests of Bosnian Americans in the USA and advocates a multi-ethnic and democratic country, said the USA wants to see Bosnia as a NATO member.

“That's very important for Bosnia and Herzegovina, we must invest in our military forces. We don't have educated staff as we had in 1992. We have less of pro-Bosnian soldiers. That's something that worries me and should worry all of us. We must invest more money in our armed forces,” she reiterated.