Speaking in an interview with the Russian news website lenta.ru on Thursday, excerpts of which were carried by the Republika Srpska news agency Srna, Dodik said that citizens of the Bosnian Serb entity were against Bosnia and Herzegovina joining NATO and that any decision on this issue would have to be made at an entity-level referendum.
"That's logical for a number of historical reasons. One of them is the fact that 20 years ago NATO bombed the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina and then Serbia as well," Dodik said, adding that the position of the Bosnian Serb authorities on NATO membership would be dictated by Serbia's military neutrality.
Dodik noted that the Bosnian Serbs were less and less Euro-optimistic and that he himself doubted that EU membership was a good option. "We are actually being forced to integrate into the EU. It's unclear how good that is."
Dodik said that Republika Srpska planned to strengthen its cooperation with Euro-Asian countries, stressing that it was very important that the Euro-Asian integration model should be as strong as possible "so that it could be an alternative to other global projects."
Srna quoted Dodik as saying that he "unconditionally understands and supports" Russian President Vladimir Putin in the present confrontation with the West, including the Russian annexation of Crimea.