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News from Washington, D.C.
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ACBH Meets with the
Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH
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H.E. Haris Hrle BiH's Ambassador to the U.S., Ajla Delkic Executive Director of ACBH, Dr. Denis Zvizdic Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, Vehid Deumic, Vice President of ACBH.
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On October 10, 2016 ACBH met with Dr. Denis Zvizdic, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina to discuss U.S.-Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) relations.
During the meeting, ACBH Vice President Vehid Deumic stressed the importance of BiH's Euro-Atlantic integration and informed Chairman Zvizdic of the work that ACBH was doing to further that goal. Chairman Zvizdic underlined the importance of BiH's economic development and highlighted some of the successes of this year, notably Brussels' formal acceptance of BiH's application for EU membership. Chairman Zvizdic also underscored the continued importance of BiH's NATO accession. Since 2009, BiH has made valuable contributions to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, and in 2010, BiH was invited to join NATO's Membership Action Plan (MAP) pending the registration of 63 immovable defense properties - comprised mainly of barracks and buildings, with BiH's Ministry of Defense.
ACBH has been a longstanding proponent of NATO enlargement and believes that NATO membership is crucial to the peace, stability and economic security of not just BiH, but the entire Southeast Europe region.
ACBH would like to thank Chairman Zvizdic for his generous time and robust discussion and the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina for facilitating the meeting. ACBH looks forward to working with all parties to further BiH's Euro-Atlantic aspirations.
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ACBH Meets with the Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH
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Counselor Emin Cohodarevic Embassy of BiH, Ajla Delkic Executive Director of ACBH, Fadil Novalic Prime Minister of the Federation of BiH, Benjamin Tikvina ACBH Board of Directors and Negra Husikic ACBH Board of Directors.
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On October 7, 2016 the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) welcomed Fadil Novalic, Prime Minister of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina - the country's larger entity, to the ACBH Washington office. Joining Prime Minister Novalic was Counselor Emin Cohodarevic from the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Washington, DC.
During the meeting, ACBH highlighted that for the past ten years, the organization has been working to strengthen and promote the voice of the Bosnian American diaspora in Washington. Prime Minister Novalic stated that ACBH was the most organized and professional diaspora organization that he has come across and commended ACBH's work on advocating for united, a multi-ethnic and democratic Bosnia and Herzegovina.
ACBH President Mirzeta Hadzikadic and Honorary Board Member and co-founder Dr. Mirsad Hadzikadic joined the meeting via video teleconference from Charlotte, NC and emphasized that throughout the years, ACBH has formed indispensible relationships with policymakers in Washington. Both noted the importance of building relationships with various representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina as well in order to strengthen the ties between the two countries. ACBH Secretary Benjamin Tikvina, Treasurer Negra Husikic and Executive Director Ajla Delkic also encouraged the Prime Minister to evaluate the various possibilities of coordinating links between the diaspora and the homeland.
ACBH looks forward to working with Prime Minister Novalic and his staff on strengthening the ties between BiH and the U.S. and continuing our work on advocating for BiH's Euro-Atlantic integration.
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ACBH Meets with the U.S. Mission to the UN
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As the United Nations (UN) prepared to select its new Secretary-General, the Advisory Council for Bosnia and Herzegovina (ACBH) traveled to New York City to meet with the U.S. Mission to the United Nations to convey the grave concerns of the Bosnian American diaspora regarding Vuk Jeremic's bid to become the next UN Secretary-General.
During his time as President of the 67th UN General Assembly (UNGA), former Serbian Foreign Minister Jeremic consistently used the UN as a platform to spread Serbian nationalist agenda. In a series of highly inappropriate and controversial events, Mr. Jeremic organized an inflammatory debate on the topic of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The event was insulting to the non-Serb victims of genocide and ethnic cleansing in both BiH and Croatia. Further and also during his tenure as the President of UNGA, Mr. Jeremic compared Kosovo Albanians to the evil orcs in J.R.R. Tolkien's book "The Hobbit" and publicly stated that Kosovo would join the UN over his dead body.
"ACBH is grateful to the United States as well as all of the UN missions that worked hard to counter Mr. Jeremic's controversial behavior during his time as the President of UNGA and for taking ACBH's concerns into consideration," stated ACBH Executive Director Ajla Delkic.
Earlier this month, at the recommendation of the UN Security Council, the General Assembly unanimously appointed António Guterres - former Prime Minister of Portugal (1995-2002) as the next Secretary-General of the UN. Mr. Guterres is set to assume office on January 1, 2017. ACBH welcomes the appointment of Mr. Guterres as the next Secretary-General of the UN and hopes that he will use his political, diplomatic and humanitarian acumen in leading the UN on tackling important global challenges facing the world today.
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