Bosnia and Herzegovina's foreign minister nominee, Elmedin Konakovic, has said that his first task upon taking office will be to visit Zagreb and then the other capitals in the region in order to improve relations as a prerequisite for stepping up BiH's Euro-Atlantic journey.

In an interview with the Klix news website of Wednesday, he said the state parliament’s House of Representatives could vote in the next Council of Ministers next week.

Konakovic said the BiH diplomacy was in big disarray due to opposing political factions’ influence on the work of the Foreign Ministry.

BiH must intensify its activity in Washington and Brussels, but most important is to improve the relations with the neighbours, which also affect internal processes, he said.

“We are sending the message that BiH issues occur and are solved in BiH, which is why this meddling by the neighbours sometimes produces certain problems. I think it’s necessary to relax (the relations) first and foremost with the neighbours as a prerequisite for our Euro-Atlantic journey. I know it won’t be easy… or happen overnight.”

Konakovic said the border issue with Croatia and Serbia must be urgently resolved as a condition for realising important inter-state projects, on which Bosnian Croat and Bosnian Serb leaders, Dragan Covic and Milorad Dodik respectively, insist.

He said the Bosniak civic bloc, of which his party is a member, was willing to approve any inter-state project that was in the interest of BiH citizens, but it would insist on complying with the law as well as with EU regulations.

That is why Dodik is being denied consent for the construction of an oil pipeline which would supply BiH and its Serb entity only with Russian gas, he said, adding that instead BiH should connect with Croatia’s gas network.

Konakovic said he did not doubt that Dodik would continue to dream of the establishment of a Greater Serbia, but that he would have to face the fact that it would not happen as the Serb entity would not separate from BiH without a conflict.

Konakovic is the leader of the People and Justice (NiP) party, a member of a bloc of Bosniak and civic parties that together with the Croat HDZ BiH party and Dodik’s SNSD form Bosnia and Herzegovina’s new ruling coalition.