Leaders from Bosnia & Herzegovina’s Serb-dominated Republika Srpska entity said on February 6 that their delegation’s visit to Washington marked a diplomatic breakthrough

The delegation included former Republika Srpska president Milorad Dodik, just months after the US lifted sanctions on the controversial politician. He called the trip an “undeniable success” for Republika Srpska. 

“Political Sarajevo is trying to blacken Republika Srpska and me, but they have failed in that. The delegation of Republika Srpska met with 14 congressmen, several senators, as well as other important political figures — and this is now a different America,” Dodik wrote on X on February 7. 

The Bosnian Serb politician is an outspoken fan of both US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since Trump’s return to power, he lobbied the US to have the sanctions lifted. 

The delegation was led by officials from Dodik’s ruling Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and Bosnian state-level Presidency member Zeljka Cvijanovic. Officials held talks with US lawmakers and officials at multiple levels during a trip that included attending the National Prayer Breakfast.

Acting Republika Srpska President Ana Trisic Babic described the visit as one of the most “productive and high quality” the entity had made to the US in recent years. 

"This is a moment that benefits Republika Srpska. Time works for Republika Srpska,” she said, according to an SNSD statement. "This visit has shown that our work is bringing results.” 

Dodik has for years challenged Bosnia’s post-war constitutional order and has repeatedly threatened to withdraw Republika Srpska from key state institutions, raising fears among Western governments of renewed instability in the Balkans.

He reiterated this in comments reported by the SNSD, telling journalists explicitly: “Our goal is to separate.” 

He wrote on X said the group acted only as representatives of Republika Srpska, not of Bosnia as a whole.

During his remarks on the trip, he again argued that the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war and created Bosnia’s two-entity structure, had been undermined beyond repair.

“The Dayton Agreement has been broken and there is no chance of repairing it. It is clearly visible that Muslims are exerting pressure on Serbs and that they want to threaten Christians,” he wrote. 

“In the USA we … spoke with the White House spokesperson; we talked about Republika Srpska. We emphasised that [Bosnia & Herzegovina] is unacceptable to us.” 

He also rejected the authority of international High Representative Christian Schmidt and said he had discussed possible sanctions against Schmidt and Sarajevo-based officials during meetings in Washington.

Dodik said Republika Srpska’s foreign policy priorities lay with the United States, Russia, Israel and Serbia, rather than the European Union, and reaffirmed what he called a strategic partnership with Moscow, according to an SNSD statement.

“We have a strategic partnership with Moscow and Russia. We continue to cooperate with Russia at a strategic level,” he said.

The visit drew criticism in Washington, where senator Jeanne Shaheen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called on the Trump administration to reinstate sanctions on Dodik that were lifted in October.

Bosnia remains under close international scrutiny nearly three decades after the war, with Western governments warning that any attempt to break up the country would violate the Dayton settlement and risk destabilising the region.