May 23, 2026, 7:16 amMay 23, 2026, 7:16 am
Christian Schmidt has resigned as United Nations representative for Bosnia.Image: keystone
After announcing his resignation, the United Nations envoy to Bosnia acknowledged that pressure from the United States played a role in his decision. When asked by the “Augsburger Allgemeine” whether US President Trump had pressured him to do this, the German Christian Schmidt replied:
“I don’t know what the American president means. All I can say is that there has been enormous and surprising pressure from the USA.
Christian Schmidt
According to the CSU politician, he wanted to avoid the institution of the High Representative being “damaged by this discussion, the background of which is not entirely clear to me.” That’s why he’s leaving a little earlier than he imagined.
Schmidt announced his withdrawal from the position almost two weeks ago and spoke of it as a personal decision. The media had previously reported pressure from the USA.
Increasing support from the USA for Dodik
The government of US President Donald Trump is increasingly supporting the Bosnian Serb politician Milorad Dodik, who is pushing for the Serbian part of RS to secede from the Bosnian state.
Since the war (1992 to 1995) with more than 100,000 deaths, Bosnia-Herzegovina has consisted of two parts of the country: the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina (FBiH), which is mainly inhabited by Bosniaks and Croats, and the Republika Srpska (RS), which is mainly inhabited by Serbs. The parts of the country enjoy extensive autonomy.
Schmidt used his powers to annul numerous RS laws that were intended to initiate a secession. Washington’s change of course could also be linked to Dodik’s support for pipeline and gas power plant projects that business people in Trump’s environment are pushing forward.
Never against pipeline project
With this in mind, Schmidt now said: “The topic played a role – but I was never against this project. On the contrary.”
The pipeline from Croatia to Bosnia was launched by the EU so that Bosnia-Herzegovina would become less dependent on Russian oil and gas, he said.
“I am all the more surprised that the same EU has not managed to build this pipeline with European funds, but that Bosnia now needs the Americans, some of whom come with their own ideas.”
Christian Schmidt
(sda/dpa)