BOSNIA - HIGHREP LAJCAK TO BE NAMED SLOVAK FOREIGN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SARAJEVO 000088 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR (JONES) AND EUR/SCE (HYLAND, FOOKS, STINCHCOMB) E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/22/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL BA SK SUBJECT: BOSNIA - HIGHREP LAJCAK TO BE NAMED SLOVAK FOREIGN MINISTER Classified By: Ambassador Charles English for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) In a meeting with the Ambassador today, High Rep Miroslav Lajcak said that he had been offered and accepted the position of Slovak Foreign Minister. He plans to inform the PIC tomorrow, and immediately afterwards will tell the Presidency, which will be asked to inform other Bosnian government institutions. Lajcak said that, in accordance with the wishes of Slovak Prime Minister Fico, he will be sworn in as Foreign Minister on Monday January 28, after which he plans to return to Sarajevo for two to three weeks while the issue of his successor is worked out. ¶2. (C) Lajcak said that he asked PM Fico to call EU Foreign Policy HighRep Solana and inform him of Lajcak's appointment as Foreign Minister. According to Lajcak, Solana pointedly told Fico that Lajcak had met with him in Brussels just yesterday and had not mentioned anything about the job offer. Fico told Solana that Lajcak did not know he would be nominated. Lajcak also mentioned that one plausible candidate to succeed him as High Rep is Stefano Sannino, diplomatic advisor of the EU Commission. The Ambassador noted that if Sannino were the next HighRep, Italians would hold all three top international positions in Bosnia, as they already head the EUFOR and NATO missions. Comment -------------- ¶3. (C) We expect this news to hit the Bosnian electronic media tomorrow at midday and to be in the print media on Saturday. Post is studying the various complications raised by this turn of events. One critical issue is the implication this will have for preserving the Bonn Powers. Another is whether Lajcak can continue to serve as HighRep while simultaneously serving as Slovak Foreign Minister. Yet another is the issue of succession. The Russians will likely oppose any successor and will look to Lajcak's departure as a trigger to close OHR. However, prospects for Bosnia meeting the "5 plus 2" objectives and conditions for closing OHR in time for the March PIC are low. If the entire PIC cannot reach consensus, this raises the question of whether the rest of the PIC could name a successor based on consensus of all members except Russia. The French and German positions will be key to what steps the PIC could take. Post is forwarding to DAS Jones and the desk a PDF document we received from OHR which discusses the mechanisms for appointing the High Rep. ENGLISH