SARAJEVO, March 15 (Hina) - The lower chamber of parliament on Monday appointed Nikola Radovanovic as Bosnia-Herzegovina's first defence minister, fulfilling one of the key conditions for the country's admission to NATO's Partnership
for Peace programme.
SARAJEVO, March 15 (Hina) - The lower chamber of parliament on Monday
appointed Nikola Radovanovic as Bosnia-Herzegovina's first defence
minister, fulfilling one of the key conditions for the country's
admission to NATO's Partnership for Peace programme.#L#
In addition to Radovanovic, who was proposed by the Serb Democratic
Party (SDS), the lower house also appointed his deputies, Enes
Becirbasic, a Muslim, and Marina Pendes, a Croat.
Radovanovic completed Army Academy, attended courses at the Royal
College for Defence Studies in London and completed postgraduate
studies in international relations and diplomacy at Oxford
University.
Radovanovic was proposed as defence minister after two previous
candidates nominated by the SDS had not received approval from the
Office of the High Representative because of their dubious roles
during the war.
Since the signing of the Dayton peace agreement in 1995,
Bosnia-Herzegovina has not had a defence structure at state level. The
armed forces of the Muslim-Croat federation and Republika Srpska have
up to now acted as armed forces of two independent countries, with no
coordination between them.
The international community demanded establishment of a single defence
ministry and a single armed force before it considered the possibility
of Bosnia-Herzegovina joining Euro-Atlantic integration processes.
(Hina) vm sb