NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte supported the federal government of Bosnia and Herzegovina and said that the Alliance will not allow a "security vacuum" to emerge in the country.

Tensions rose after Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik was convicted last month of defying Christian Schmidt, the top official charged with overseeing the peace accords that ended the Bosnian war in the 1990s.

Dodik, who heads the Republika Srpska (RS, the Serb entity in BiH), was unrepentant after the verdict and helped pass laws banning the federal police and the country's judiciary from accessing the Serb entity in Bosnia.

The laws were later overturned by the Constitutional Court.

Rutte landed in Sarajevo while Dodik and Schmidt remained locked in their bitter feud with no clear path for de-escalation. 

"This is not 1992 and we will not allow a security vacuum to emerge," the NATO secretary general told a news conference, referring to the year the bloody war in Bosnia began. 

Rutte made the remarks after meeting with the three members of the BiH presidency in the capital Sarajevo and urged the trio to help end the ongoing political fighting. 

"You must solve this problem, the three of you," Rutte added. 

Since the end of Bosnia's inter-ethnic war in the 1990s, the country has consisted of two autonomous parts - a Serb-dominated RS and a Muslim-Croat region. 

The two entities have their own governments and parliaments and are linked by weak central institutions, among them a three-member presidency including representatives of ethnic Serbs, Croats and Muslim Bosniaks. 

Rutte's visit comes just days after BiH's constitutional court suspended legislation signed by Dodik that rejected the powers of the federal police and judiciary within the RS. 

Last week, Dodik also ignored a summons from the BiH attorney general, who is investigating the leader on charges of undermining the constitution.

BiH's divided politics and fragile post-war institutions face growing insecurity amid the unfolding crisis. 

In response to rising tensions, the European Union force (EUFOR) said last week it would "temporarily increase" the size of its peacekeeping mission in the country.

Dodik's actions come in the context of ongoing tensions with Schmidt, who has broad powers to intervene in BiH's governance. 

The RS leader has already pushed through two earlier laws that refused to recognize the rulings of the country's supreme representative and constitutional court.

This led to his conviction last month and his sentence of one year in prison and a six-year ban from office. 

For years, Dodik pursued a separatist agenda, repeatedly threatening to remove the Serbian state from BiH's central institutions - including the army, judiciary and tax system - which led to sanctions from the United States.

Rutte's visit also comes at a time when the trans-Atlantic alliance is facing concerns stemming from U.S. President Donald Trump's realignment of relations with many of Washington's longtime security partners.

For years, NATO helped ensure BiH's security after the alliance's intervention in its war in the 1990s helped end a conflict that claimed nearly 100,000 lives. 

Based in the capital Sarajevo, the alliance works closely with the EU's EUFOR mission on the ground. | BGNES