Serbia’s President Boris Tadic and Bosnian Muslim member of the Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic met in Banja Luka saying that their friendly meeting opens a new phase in the Belgrade-Sarajevo relations.

“We expect that Bosnia respects the integrity of Serbia, we spoke of friendly relations,” said Tadic.

The meeting is the first one after Izetbegovic took over the post of the Presidency from the extremist Silajdzic.

“People are ripe for some better relations and luck, and time has aligned that compatible people are in the region and I think that we will quickly move towards normalization of the situation, towards better life, towards better future,” said Izetbegovic.

Bakir Izetbegovic is the son of the Bosnian Muslim leader Alija Izetbegovic whose policies are responsible for a civil war in Bosnia. Thousands of al-Qaeda fighters migrated in Bosnia after Izetbegovic freely offered Bosnian citizenship.

Tadic and Izetbegovic also discussed exchange of visits, but did not set a date for Izetbegovic’s visit to Belgrade.

According to Tadic, the outstanding issues of the two countries should be addressed even before official visits.

After the meeting, Tadic told that Serbia’s policy on the integrity of each and every member state of the United Nations remains the same, adding that he expects Bosnia to respect Serbia’s integrity.

Izetbegovic evaluated that “ripening of peoples, who are ready for better relations,” is in progress in the region and that he expects the movement towards the EU to get accelerated.

“It all boils down to all of us sharing the same better future,” said Izetbegovic.

In Banja Luka, Tadic and Izetbegovic attended an event organized by Bosnia’s newspaper Nezavisne Novine at which meeting Croatian President Ivo Josipovic was declared personality of the year.

December 7, 2010
SERBIANNA
Tanjug

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