Bosnia and Herzegovina's Defence Minister, Sifet Podzic, said on Wednesday he received "firm assurances" from Nato that it would ensure the continuation of the peace-keeping mission in Bosnia in the event that Russia tried to block the extension of the EU troops' mandate.

The EU took over peace keeping in Bosnia from Nato in 2004 when the EU’s Althea operation was launched, enforced by a contingent of European troops called Eufor.

Eufor consists of a little over 1,000 troops at the moment, 500 more than before the Russian aggression on Ukraine. “If the crisis in Bosnia escalates, Nato will help them in their activity under the Berlin Plus agreement,” Croatian state agency Hina said.

Eufor has a mandate renewed every year by the UN Security Council. The deterioration of Russia-West relations has given rise to speculation that later this year Russia might exercise its right of veto in the UN Security Council to block extending the mission’s mandate.

The Chairman of the Nato Military Committee, Admiral Rob Bauer, said in Sarajevo on Tuesday that “intensive consultations” were under way on how to resolve that problem, if it arose. Speaking for N1 television on Thursday, Minister Podzic said he was given “firm assurances” at a recent Nato summit in Madrid that the alliance would respond if Russia imposed a veto.

“If there is a veto, Allied forces would take over the mission,” Podzic said.

Asked what could Bosnia do if faced with a direct Russian threat to its security in case Bosnia came closer to achieving Nato membership, Podzic said the country would “defend itself with what it had,” but that he was sure it could count on help from the West.

“We certainly won’t be alone,” he said, adding that the biggest threat at the moment was “the hybrid war Russia was waging all over the Western Balkans.”

“A much bigger threat than Russia at the moment are Bosnia’s internal problems,” he said.