Nikolic: Serbia will help RS defend itself against terrorism

BELGRADE - Serbia will help Republika Srpska (RS) fight terrorism and fundamentalism, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said after a meeting he had with RS President Milorad Dodik in Belgrade on Wednesday.

Nikolic, Dodik and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic met in the wake of a terrorist attack in Zvornik (eastern RS, on the border with Serbia) on April 27, when police officer Dragan Djuric was killed and two other policemen got wounded.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Dodik and Vucic, Nikolic said that the attack on the police station showed that the international community had not done all that should have been done to ensure Bosnia-Herzegovina (BiH) was constituted as a functional state.

Given the situation, the RS is not sufficiently prepared to defend itself from the growing dangers of fundamentalism and terrorism, and Serbia is therefore obliged to help it deal with the threat, Nikolic said.

Nikolic said that it was obvious that all Balkan states had to establish a stronger, solid cooperation and exchang information, adding that he and Dodik spoke about modalities of such cooperation.

Nikolic stressed that "Serbia does not want to do anything that could jeopardize the functioning and survival of Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it also does not allow anything to jeopardize the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia-Herzegovina."

NIKOLIC CALLS FOR REGIONAL COOPERATION AGAINST TERRORISM

Serbia's President Tomislav Nikolic has called on the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH) and all neighboring countries to cooperate in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism.

Nikolic talked in Belgrade with the president of Republika Srpska about modalities of that...