Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Monday at his office in Jerusalem with Željka Cvijanović, Serb member of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The meeting was held as part of efforts to deepen relations between the countries and advance political and economic cooperation.
1+Diplomatic relations between Israel and Bosnia and Herzegovina were established in 1997, about five years after the Balkan state gained independence. Israel manages its relations with Bosnia and Herzegovina through its embassy in Albania, while Bosnia and Herzegovina’s embassy to Israel is located in Tel Aviv.
Over the years, several political visits have taken place between the two sides. In 2003, Foreign Minister Mladen Ivanić visited Israel, and in 2017 he returned to Israel as chairman of the presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During that visit he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, in what was the first visit by a Bosnian president to Israel.
1+Alongside official relations with the state, Israel maintains close ties with Republika Srpska, the Serb entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina. Over the years, representatives of the entity have frequently taken friendly positions toward Israel in international forums and expressed opposition to moves perceived as harmful to it.
One prominent example was in 2011, when an internal dispute between the different components of Bosnia and Herzegovina prevented official support for the ‘Palestinian’ initiative to gain recognition at the UN, leading the country to abstain in the vote.