Dodik Says Kosovo Minister is Unwelcome in Bosnia

Bosnian Serb President Milorad Dodik has said the announced visit of Kosovo Foreign Minister Pacolli to Banja Luka - for Wednesday's gathering of foreign ministers of member states of the South East European Cooperation Process, SEECP - is not acceptable.

"Republika Srpska did not give consent for Bosnia to recognize the Kosovo so-called minister of that false country, who cannot be welcomed in Republika Srpska," Dodik said on Monday. 

SEECP is a regional cooperation structure launched by the states of the region on a Bulgarian initiative in 1996, and this week's meeting forms part of its regular activities. 

Bosnian Foreign Minister Igor Crnadak confirmed that Pacolli would be coming to Banja Luka, with the consent of Serbia. 

"The representative of so-called Kosovo will participate in the process of cooperation, according to the agreement between Belgrade and Pristina, and with the consent of Belgrade," Crnadak said on Sunday. 

Bosnia and Kosovo have the poorest bilateral relations in the Western Balkans. There are serious barriers to travel and trade between the two countries, mutual visa requirements, coupled with the absence of diplomatic missions in Sarajevo and Pristina.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia has vowed never to recognise its former province's statehood, but all other former Yugoslav republics, apart from Bosnia, where the Bosnian Serbs politicians strongly oppose this idea, have long since recognised it.

Mladen Ivanic, the Serbian member of Bosnia's tripartite Presidency, hopes the meeting will contribute to a normalisation of political situation despite the pre-election period that the country is slowly entering. 

"Those are important meetings for both Banja Luka and Bosnia,...