BiH Presidency Chairman Sefik Dzaferovic and member Milorad Dodik, met Wednesday with the Assistant Secretary of State of the United States in the Office for Europe and Eurasia, Karen Donfried. Addressing the media, Dodik stated that the meeting was good and that he told the American representative that "BiH is a safe environment".

“We agreed on many things, we didn’t agree on some. The statement that BiH should preserve its territorial integrity and external sovereignty is absolutely not disputable as far as we are concerned if it means that BiH is composed of two entities and three constituent peoples. And in that regard, I see that the American side is on that concept of BiH, and primarily focused on preserving peace and security here, which is important to us, as well. I familiarized the lady with the fact that BiH is a safe environment and that complete security prevails. There are no challenges that could lead to BiH being destabilized in terms of some riots,” Dodik said after the meeting.

Speaking about the ALTHEA mission, he said that he himself was for that mission when voting took place last year, but that it was not for this type of mission where “soldiers travel across BiH, are in front of schools, kindergartens and public institutions, primarily in Banja Luka.”

“The commander of ALTHEA himself said that BiH is safe, but because of the noise here, primarily from Sarajevo, 500 additional soldiers suddenly appeared. I said that ALTHEA can continue, but that it can’t carry out activities without the consent of the Presidency of BiH. The ALTHEA that was invisible is the best guarantee of security,” said Dodik.

the European peace-keeping mission EUFOR Althea has the mandate to move across the country and implement all the activities it deems necessary within its mandate without the permission of any BiH or entity institution, as their security mandate supersedes that of any BiH institution.