Bosnia and Herzegovina left vulnerable by policy clash with US, representative says

The UN high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina has warned about the possible destruction of the multi-ethnic state after he was forced to resign in a policy clash with the US, seemingly complicated by the commercial interests of a firm linked to Donald Trump Jr that is seeking to make investments in the region.

German Christian Democrat politician Christian Schmidt is set to explain his resignation in a scheduled meeting with the UN security council in New York on Tuesday, where he will also warn about the fragility of Bosnia and Herzegovina. He has made clear he believes his post should be maintained by saying he will stay on until his successor is appointed.

The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, already locked in a clash with Trump over the Iran war and the reduction of US troops stationed in Germany, has been unable to protect Schmidt from US pressure.

The role of the UN high representative was established as part of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement that ended a three year ethnic war in which more than 100,000 people were killed. It was given wide powers for the interpretation of the agreement, including amending laws, but is subject to the decisions of a 55-strong multinational governing board.

Schmidt has served as high representative for five years, but his appointment has always been opposed by Russia and the largely autonomous Republika Srpska, the Serb-run part of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

He has has clashed with the former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and an attendee at the 9 May Moscow Victory Day parade, who he disqualified from office for six months for failing to comply with his decisions. Dodik was until last year subject to US sanctions but, in a reversal not coordinated with the European Union, they were lifted, in a move that signalled a shifting US approach to the western Balkans. There is no sign that Dodik has dropped his secessionist views.

Schmidt had acted against Dodik after the Republika Srpska national assembly voted to disregard the decisions of the Bosnian constitutional court. Since the end of the three-year war in 1995, Bosnia and Herzegovina has consisted of two entities: the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, mainly inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats, and the Republika Srpska, primarily inhabited by Serbs.

Schmidt told the security council: “The persistent denial of the multi-ethnic character of the entities, particularly within Republika Srpska, has evolved into systematic exclusion.” He said it was “deeply concerning that narratives portraying Bosnia [and] Herzegovina as a stage for a so-called clash of civilisations have re-emerged”, and he singled out Dodic for using explicitly secessionist terms