UN rejects Russian bid to abolish Bosnia peace envoy post

The UN Security Council has voted to reject a Russian proposal to abolish the post of International High Representative for Bosnia, and the office that goes with it, by July 2022.

Co-sponsored by China, the Russian resolution needed nine of the council's 15 votes to pass, but only received two – from Russia and China themselves. All the other members of the Security Council abstained.

If it had received the necessary votes, the resolution could still have been vetoed by one of the five permanent members, which along with Russia and China, are the United States, Britain and France.

The rejection was no surprise. Before the vote, western diplomats had accused Moscow of trying to undermine the office of the high representative and the German politician in line to take up the post on August 1, Christian Schmidt.

Dayton deal

Schmidt was appointed to the job in May by the Peace Implementation Council of the 1995 Dayton agreement, which is made up of 55 countries.

Russia has long been trying to have the position scrapped, accusing the office of being prejudiced against the Bosnian Serbs, allies of Moscow.

At the end of June, Russia said it "categorically refused" the appointment of Schmidt, a former German agriculture minister.

After its proposed resolution was shot down, Russia said Schmidt would not take up the position and the post would remain "vacant."

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