The German government has paved the way for troop deployments with the European Union’s peacekeeping mission in Bosnia for the first time in a decade, as concerns about instability from Ukraine’s war extending to the Western Balkans intensify. Government spokesman Stephen Seibert told reporters at a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday that the cabinet had decided to send troops to EUFOR-Althea, which has been active since 2004. Seibert said a maximum of 50 troops would be sent in a year, marking a return to power in Bosnia left by Germany in late 2012. Some of the troops are intended to staff two so-called liaison and surveillance teams, which are deployed in the country and act as sensors for EUFOR command, while others will work at the Sarajevo headquarters. The decision of the Council of Ministers must be approved by the Bundestag and Seibert said that after the approval in the parliament, the German soldiers will serve until the end of next June and the period can be extended. The German Ministry of Defense also said that the federal government has decided to resume participation in the EU operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina in EUFOR-Althea. “A stable region of the Western Balkans is very important to us. “The first Bundestag consultation is expected to take place on June 24,” he said on Twitter.
“Security gap”
Bosnia is hundreds of kilometers away from the fighting in Ukraine, but is facing an increasingly assertive Bosnian Serb separatist movement that analysts say has at least tacit support from Moscow. Just days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU decided to almost double the size of its EUFOR peacekeeping force to 1,100 troops out of 600, sending reserves to prevent possible instability. With Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik increasingly shouting for his separatist goals, EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borel called the move a “precautionary measure”. NATO and senior EU officials have warned that war instability in Ukraine could spread to the Western Balkans. “Thus, Germany is responding to the tense situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” the German Foreign Ministry said on Twitter on Wednesday. “Also in the run-up to the October elections, we, along with our Europeans and our NATO partners, will not allow a security vacuum in our immediate neighborhood.” However, Toby Vogel, a senior fellow at the Political Democratization Council, noted that Bosnia already has a security gap “at least since 2011, when the EU allowed EUFOR to fall below the minimum operational power”. There has been a security vacuum in Bosnia and Herzegovina since at least 2011, when the EU allowed EUFOR to fall below minimum operational power (and Germany withdrew its troops). – Toby Vogel (@tobyvogel) June 15, 2022 EUFOR’s current term ends in November and it is up to the United Nations Security Council to decide on an extension for another year. But concerns are growing that Moscow may use its veto to thwart a deal. Active since 2004, EU EUFOR-Althea is the successor to NATO peacekeeping missions in the country. European troops are destined to stabilize the country after the 1992-95 war that cost about 100,000 lives. In December 1995, Bosnia split into two entities: a Bosnia-Croat “Federation” and a Serb entity known as Republika Srpska as part of the Dayton Peace Accords. Dodik has made no secret of his admiration and close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his push to secede from the Republika Srpska entity is widely believed to have the support of the Kremlin.
