Bulgarian Foreign Policy and Recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina

This paper explains that Bulgaria took the responsibility to be the only country to recognise the independence of Bosnia and Herzegovina already in January 1992, with the deep conviction that only in this way equality could be achieved between all former Yugoslav republics, and specifically for Bosnia and Herzegovina – the impending tragedy could be prevented. The chronological framework of the article presents Bulgarian foreign policy from the mid-1980s to the international recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s statehood in April 1992. In the early 1990s Bulgaria had a special interest and a specific concern regarding the process of rethinking the existing relations between the detached republics in the multinational Yugoslav federation. When negotiations on the future of Yugoslavia ended in failure in the spring of 1991, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry developed a new approach in relations with Yugoslavia. The emphasis shifted from contacts with the leadership of the federation to contacts with the leaderships of the republics. As soon as Croatia and Slovenia declared their independence on June 25, 1991, the official Bulgarian position followed that of the European Community (EC), which had initially advocated the preservation of the Yugoslav federation. At the same time, Sofia expressed its principled view that the individual Yugoslav republics were free to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination. Already during the early autumn of 1991, Sofia officially received guests at government level from Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia. After them, Bulgaria’s attention turned to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Bulgarian ambassador in Belgrade visited Sarajevo on 22 and 23 October 1991. He held an impressive number of meetings covering the whole spectrum of state and party institutions. At the end of 1991 Bulgaria was preparing to establish full relations with the Yugoslav republics. It was ready to recognise their independence, but it had stated an official position that it would synchronise concrete steps in this respect with the moves of the EC. The positions of Turkey and Greece were also important for Bulgaria. On January 13, 1992, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry decided to include Bosnia and Herzegovina „in a package” with the other Yugoslav republics to be recognised as independent states. The Bulgarian government’s decision was officially announced on 15 January 1992. Some Bulgarian politicians had some concerns about Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had not even yet held a referendum on secession from Yugoslavia. The opinion of the Bulgarian Prime Minister Philip Dimitrov was decisive: „It was more beneficial for me to look incompetent in constitutional and legal terms on the issue of Bosnia than to create a mess for me and be one of the people who encouraged Milosevic to enter Bosnia”. Although it claimed that it was relying on the criteria adopted by the EC, Bulgaria actually went much further than the EC, which only recognised Slovenia and Croatia. Sofia’s recognition of Bosnia and Herzegovina was symbolically important because it came in a moment of rising extreme internal conflict when the whole of Europe was silent and hesitant how to react.