Russia and China opposeappointed representativefor BiH at UN

NEW YORK (TASS): Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzia said that the Security Council of the world organization cannot consider the German diplomat Christian Schmidt as High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), since his candidacy did not pass the necessary approval.
“I would like to make a reservation that we do not consider German citizen Christian Schmidt as High Representative. The UN Security Council did not give appropriate approval for his approval in this position,” Nebenzya said at a meeting of the Council on Bosnia a-nd Herzegovina. “We would like to emphasize that the Bosnian problem is on the agenda of the Council within the meaning of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter,” the diplomat noted. “There is already a quarter-century practice of approving High Representatives. states that consider themselves the guardians of the tradition of jurisprudence and international law”. “We would like to emphasize
At the same time, the Russian diplomat noted that “there is a practice according to which it is possible to hear the speaker in his personal capacity in order to assess whether his participation will be required in the future.” “That’s how we perceive his participation here today,” Nebenzya added.
Russia’s position was supported by Dai Bin, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the UN. “In view of the fact that the appointment of Mr. Schmidt was not approved by the Security Council, we believe that he cannot act in the Council as a High Representative,” he said.
Schmidt’s speech followed the remarks of the Russian and Chinese diplomats.
On May 27 last year, the Ambassadors of the Steering Committee of the Peace Implementation Council (PIC Steering Committee) decided to appoint German diplomat Christian Schmidt as the new High Representative in BiH. Traditionally, the appointment was made after the approval of the candidate in the UN Security Council, but this time it was not possible to do so. Russia, which is a member of the RK SVMS, opposed such a decision. Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, President of the Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik demanded to close the office of the UN High Representative in BiH, calling the appointment of a new High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina without the approval of the UN Security Council a violation of the Dayton Agreement, international law and the Constitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina.