The Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denis Bećirović, stated after his meeting with the President of the Republic of Austria, Alexander Van der Bellen, that they jointly concluded that BiH and Austria have excellent bilateral and multilateral cooperation, and that relations are traditionally friendly and good at all levels.
He recalled that on April 6, 1992, the Republic of Austria recognized the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and diplomatic relations were established on April 8 of the same year. According to him, after the signing of the Dayton Peace Agreement, in the years and decades that followed, these ties became increasingly stronger.
“These ties are economic, cultural, historical, political, and we want to develop our overall cooperation in the best possible way in the coming years and decades. We have noted that we also cooperate very well on the multilateral level. The Republic of Austria has supported BiH’s membership in the UN Economic and Social Council, within the UN Security Council. Bosnia and Herzegovina also wants to support the membership of the Republic of Austria as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council,” said Bećirović, adding that this is an opportunity to express our sincere gratitude to the Republic of Austria for its enormous assistance to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He recalled that Austria had received hundreds of thousands of people from BiH during the 1990s:
“The Republic of Austria strongly supports BiH’s European integration. Austria is one of the initiators of the establishment of the informal group Friends of the Western Balkans and they are helping us a lot on our European path. We also express our great gratitude for the important role of the Republic of Austria in the EUFOR-ALTHEA Mission in BiH. Austria plays an extremely important and positive role in this. We also thank the Austrian Development Agency for the implementation of numerous projects in BiH and we hope that this cooperation will continue in the coming period”.
Bećirović stated that the Austrian President was also informed about the strategic goals of BiH – membership in the European Union and NATO.
“We emphasized our membership in the European Union and recalled that we have made certain positive progress in the last three years,” said Bećirović, adding that on December 15, 2022, BiH gained candidate status for membership in the European Union, and on March 21, 2024, the European Council made a decision to open accession negotiations with BiH.
“According to the opinion of the leaders of the European Union, BiH has almost 100% aligned its foreign policy with the foreign and security policy of the European Union in the last three years. In a complex system like BiH, this is a huge step forward,” said Bećirović.
He added that BiH’s path to membership in the European Union should have been even better and faster, “but we have faced and are facing unnecessary obstructions within BiH, which need to be overcome as soon as possible in the interest of every person in our country.”
During the meeting, it was jointly concluded that BiH and Austria have exceptionally good economic cooperation.
Bećirović said that the Business Forum, which will discuss future economic perspectives of cooperation between BiH and the Republic of Austria, which will be held in the afternoon, is an opportunity to further encourage businesspeople at the highest state level to continue strengthening the very good economic cooperation between BiH and the Republic of Austria.
“Our goal is to intensify economic cooperation, increase investments, create new business partnerships and develop projects that will benefit our economies in the long term. The Republic of Austria is one of the largest foreign investors in BiH. The foreign trade exchange between BiH and the Republic of Austria in 2025 amounted to 2.59 billion BAM or one billion and 320 million euros. Austrian investments in BiH reach around 1.48 billion euros and have contributed to the creation of more than 8,000 jobs throughout BiH. These facts should be acknowledged and respected. Our exports to the Republic of Austria last year amounted to one billion and 533 million KM, and imports were around one billion and 35 million KM,” said Bećirović.
According to him, in the foreign trade exchange between BiH and Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina records a surplus:
“We have jointly concluded today that there are numerous areas where this economic cooperation can be raised to an even higher level. We have also proposed concrete steps when it comes to strengthening future cooperation. It is very important that in the coming period we conclude an Agreement on Economic and Trade Cooperation between the two countries, but also to strengthen cooperation in the field of energy, including renewable energy sources, environmental protection, etc.”
He pointed out that additional strength in strengthening overall interstate relations between BiH and the Republic of Austria is provided by people who are originally from BiH in Austria. This is about 170,000 people.
The Chairman of the Presidency of BiH assessed that this is a great bridge that connects these two friendly countries. These people, with their work, experience, and business ties, contribute to strengthening ties between BiH and Austria every day.
“We are proud of these people in Austria and we want them to continue to play a positive role in uniting the two extremely friendly countries in the coming period. More than 3,000 students from Bosnia and Herzegovina are studying at Austrian universities, which shows that these ties between our two countries have bright prospects in the future,” said Bećiroivić.
He said that the president of the friendly Republic of Austria was also informed about certain developments within Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“Unfortunately, last year, and this year as well, we have had open attacks on the constitutional order of BiH. The principled policy of the Republic of Austria, the policy of full support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of BiH, was very important and significant to us. This is in the best interest of all citizens of BiH, all peoples, the entire region, and it is very important to preserve peace and stability as prerequisites for economic and any other development. We also emphasized the importance of continuing our cooperation in the field of defense. The two defense ministries cooperate very well, our people are educated in Vienna, in Austria. We thank the Republic of Austria for numerous other projects, and this cooperation in this segment should be even better in the coming period,” Bećirović emphasized.
When it comes to the contractual regulation of relations between the two countries, he stated that in the past 30 years, a huge number of agreements have been concluded that have enabled quality cooperation.
“We also talked about some other agreements, drafts, memoranda that can help our cooperation to be of the highest quality. And finally, I thanked the president of the friendly Republic of Austria for the enormous support of this country during the adoption of the Resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica in the United Nations General Assembly. Last year in Vienna we also opened the Memorial to the Victims of Genocide and I said that we are not doing this to cause division and hatred. We need that culture of remembrance above all for the sake of future generations. Young people people in BiH, in the region, in all of Europe and the world should be raised and educated so that such evil never happens again anywhere in the world,” concluded the Chairman of the BiH Presidency, Denis Bećirović, Fena news agency writes.