50 soldiers are dispatched: Bundeswehr deployment in Bosnia decided

After ten years, Bundeswehr soldiers are returning to Bosnia-Herzegovina. The German Bundestag has given its consent to deployment as part of the EU mission Eufor Althea. Tensions in the region are high, and there is a risk that a Serbian republic will secede.

After around ten years, the Bundeswehr can return to Bosnia-Herzegovina. With a large majority, the Bundestag gave its mandate for the deployment of up to 50 soldiers to the Balkan country. The Bundeswehr is to participate again in the EU-led stabilization mission Eufor Althea. The Federal Government justified the participation with the current political tensions in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

In a roll-call vote, 518 MEPs voted in favor of the mandate. 96 voted against, three abstained. The new assignment is initially limited to one year. The mission has existed since 2004, and German soldiers were last there in 2012.

“The current political developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina give cause for great concern,” writes the federal government in its application for a mandate. “Ethnic divisions still shape everyday life, dominate politics and block progress and reform processes. Nationalist and inflammatory rhetoric are part of the political discourse again today.”

As a follow-up mission to the NATO-led “Stabilization Force” in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Althea is to provide security there and support compliance with the 1995 Dayton Agreement. Elections are planned in the country in October. So far, a good 2,000 soldiers from more than 20 countries have been involved in Althea.

For some time there have been efforts in the Serbian republic in Bosnia to withdraw from the state institutions and work towards secession. Russia’s ruler Vladimir Putin has been accused of supporting such efforts. There is also great sympathy for this in neighboring Serbia.

According to the mandate application, the federal government sees the “danger” that the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine “could be used as a catalyst for further destabilization of Bosnia and Herzegovina”. The submission goes on to say: “In particular, the Serbian government’s close ties to the Russian Federation and its influence on the Bosnian Serb entity Republika Srpska contribute to these fears.”