Christian Schmidt Quits Bosnia Peace Envoy Role After 5 Years as US Support Evaporates
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · May 11
Christian Schmidt Quits Bosnia Peace Envoy Role After 5 Years as US Support Evaporates
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · May 11
Summary
Christian Schmidt said he will step down as Bosnia and Herzegovina’s high representative, remaining in office only until a successor is chosen.
US backing for Schmidt appears to have collapsed after his objections to a major gas pipeline project, while Russia had never approved his 2021 appointment, leaving his position untenable.
Schmidt had repeatedly used the post’s sweeping Bonn Powers to block separatist moves by Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, a clash that helped bring Dodik a 1-year prison sentence and 6-year public-office ban.
Dodik now looks strengthened after the US lifted long-standing sanctions on him, and Russia has kept pressing to close the Office of the High Representative altogether.
That raises a broader question over whether the Dayton-era office will survive—and whether Bosnia would lose its last external check on ethno-nationalist separatist pressure.