Bosnia and Herzegovina

Baroness Ludford Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ludford (LD)]

My Lords, I warmly thank the noble Baroness, Lady Helic, for securing this important debate and for her consistent work in keeping our attention on Bosnia and Herzegovina, and I congratulate her on her excellent speech. I think the House is speaking with a united voice.

Just as things are looking a bit brighter elsewhere in eastern and south-eastern Europe—in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Armenia and especially Hungary, with the removal of Viktor Orbán, a key protector of Dodik—the western Balkans remains vulnerable to secessionist and destabilising risks, stoked by Serbia, Russia and China, and an area of threat to European, including UK, strategic and security interests.

When my late noble friend Lord Ashdown—Paddy—helped raise the alarm during the Bosnian war, people said, “Why are you bothering with this remote country?” Of course, he later became high representative, but he understood our own strategic interest in that country.

Sadly, we do not see much help coming nowadays from the United States, whose stance towards Russia and Ukraine seems driven as much by the commercial interests of the Trump family and coterie as by America’s real security interests.

I want to ask the Minister about two former ambassadors: Charles Crawford, who was once UK ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Sir Dominick Chilcott, former ambassador to Ireland and to Turkey, who have both registered under FIRS as lobbyists for Republika Srpska, whose leading players, including Dodik—even if he is no longer technically in office—and his associates are rightly under UK sanctions. Is there really nothing in the rules about former senior FCDO staff to stop this activity, which I regard as dishonourable?

As others have asked, I would like to hear where we have got to regarding UK forces’ participation in EUFOR’s Operation Althea, which would be a practical demonstration of our security partnership with the EU.

Lastly, how much aid money are we giving to Bosnia and Herzegovina to support, for example, an independent press, which is under a great deal of strain, human rights defenders, survivors of sexual violence, and civic society in general? I have looked online at the Western Balkans Freedom and Resilience Programme, but I am afraid I was unable to decipher the project’s recipients and amounts. I imagine this programme has been cut, as these Benches have consistently deplored; in Bosnia and Herzegovina, that would be particularly counterproductive. Can the Minister enumerate the sums for us?