Member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Haris Silajdžić called on Croatia on Saturday to jointly negotiate with BiH with Qatar regarding alternative gas supply for the region.
Referring to a recent statement by Croatian President Stjepan Mesić that he proposed the construction of a liquefied gas terminal in Croatia during his visit to Qatar six years ago, Silajdžić stated that such a project would be of great importance for BiH and that he is personally willing to support it.
"I will propose to President Mesić that BiH and Croatia jointly negotiate with Qatar about the possibility of gas supply … this would be a strategically important project that would immediately connect with the project of building a gas pipeline from Karlovac to Bihać, from Sarajevo to Mostar," said Silajdžić in an interview published on Saturday by Sarajevo’s "Oslobođenje". Silajdžić emphasized that he is a personal friend of the Qatari emir and that he is ready to use all his influence to expedite the realization of such a project.
Noting that President Mesić also mentioned that he was criticized when he presented the proposal for the construction of a liquefied gas terminal, Silajdžić stated that similar misunderstandings and resistance to important strategic projects also exist in BiH. He recalled that he personally and his Party for BiH (SBiH) had been negotiating for years with Kazakhstan and the company KazTransGaz, as well as with the Austrian APET group and German partners about investments exceeding three and a half billion euros in the energy sector in the Federation of BiH, and that the entire deal collapsed due to the interests of lobbies and individuals. He stated that coalition partners in power, primarily the Party of Democratic Action (SDA), refused to support such projects.
