US and Europe Fail to Agree on Bosnia High Representative, Prompting US to Reconsider Peacekeeping Role

The US embassy in Sarajevo said the United States would reconsider its role in international peacekeeping in Bosnia and Herzegovina after European states refused to back Washington’s candidate for the next High Representative. The statement followed a meeting of the Peace Implementation Council held this week in Sarajevo.

The PIC is the multinational body that oversees implementation of the 1995 Dayton peace agreement, which ended a war that cost 100,000 lives.

Washington supported Italian diplomat Antonio Zanardi Landi for the post. The UK, France, Germany and most other European states backed France’s envoy to the Western Balkans, René Troccaz. The Trump administration also pressed for a reduction in the High Representative’s authority to enforce the Dayton agreement.

In a post on X, the US embassy wrote: “The United States takes note of the European failure to reach consensus around a European candidate and is disappointed these divisions prevented the PIC from fulfilling its task to elect a new High Representative.

” The United States no longer maintains a substantial military presence in Bosnia, where a small EU peacekeeping force operates. The PIC is scheduled to reconvene toward the end of the month in another attempt to reach consensus.

Last year the United States lifted sanctions on Milorad Dodik, the Moscow-backed Serb secession leader. The outgoing High Representative, Christian Schmidt, had imposed punitive measures on Dodik for actions that undermined the Dayton agreement, and the US had pressed Schmidt to resign. Donald Trump Jr visited the main Bosnian Serb town of Banja Luka in April as a guest of Dodik’s son.