Szijjarto accompanies coronavirus aid shipment for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Hungary sent Bosnia and Herzegovina 200,000 face masks and 10,000 protective overalls for medical workers.

Szijjarto met with Foreign Minister Bisera Turkovic behind closed doors in Sarajevo and later met with Security Minister Fahrudin Radoncic. After that, aid was handed over to representatives of the Serb entity in Banja Luka.

The Hungarian official told reporters afterwards that his country was willing to help Bosnia and Herzegovina in coping with other problems as well, notably the prevention of illegal migrations.

He said that the EU had left the Western Balkans to fend for itself in that regard and that Hungary was the only country to have adopted the right approach, deciding not to let any migrant enter its territory.

The shipment of aid from Hungary has turned into a problem in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the crisis caused by the pandemic is used for internal political muscle-flexing, with Radoncic saying on Thursday that after initial misunderstandings, the problem had been solved.

The aid should not have been intended for only one entity, he said.

The Serb member of Bosnia and Herzegovina's collective state presidency, Milorad Dodik, earlier this week announced that a shipment with protective equipment would arrive from Budapest, claiming that the aid was intended solely for the Serb entity and insisting that it was a result of his good personal relations with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban.

This prompted Foreign Minister Turkovic to send a special letter to Szijjarto, asking that Hungary's assistance be sent to the country and not only one entity or ethnic group.

Hungary quickly responded by saying that its assistance would be divided equally between Sarajevo and Banja Luka.

The Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday decided that all international aid for the fight against the coronavirus that would arrive in the country in the future would be divided between the Croat-Muslim Federation entity and the Serb entity, with the Federation entity receiving 62% of aid and the Serb entity 38%.