BELGRADE, April 10, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - The leader of Bosnia's Serb statelet on Thursday said he was open to dialogue and willing to freeze so-called "secessionist" laws that have seen him accused of undermining the constitution.

But Milorad Dodik said he would only do so if the international envoy overseeing the peace agreement that ended the country's 1990s war backtracked himself.

Since the end of the conflict, Bosnia has been divided into Republika Srpska (RS), led by Dodik, and a Croat-Bosniak federation, with a weak central government.

Dodik, 66, has long been at loggerheads with Christian Schmidt, who oversees the accord, about the extent of the federal government's powers in RS.

He was convicted earlier this year of defying Schmidt then the RS National Assembly passed laws banning federal judicial and investigative bodies from operating in the entity.

Dodik was sentenced to one year in prison and banned from holding public office for six years but rejects the ruling and refused to appear before the court.

He is currently the subject of a federal arrest warrant on suspicion of undermining the Bosnian constitution.

In a post on X, the RS leader said "the only solution" to ending the impasse was "annulling Christian Schmidt's voluntarism and all the decisions he has imposed. 

"In that case, Republika Srpska is ready to temporarily freeze the laws recently adopted by the National Assembly," he wrote on the social media platform.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday met his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic in Paris and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas visited Bosnia on Tuesday.

Dodik also holds a Serbian passport while Bosnia is a candidate to join the European Union.

EU representatives warned the bloc "will not accept any threats to Bosnia's future as a country" and Macron said it was "everyone's responsibility to uphold the constitutional order".

Kallas stated that "Bosnia's constitution is the cornerstone of peace and must be respected".

"I welcome the messages from President Macron, Commissioner Kallas, and all those calling for respect for the constitutional order," Dodik wrote.

However, he added, "if Kallas believes that the constitutional order is what Schmidt has imposed, then we clearly don't understand each other".

The arrest of Dodik could inflame Bosnia's Serb statelet and further threaten the fragile balance of the deeply divided country.

Last week, Germany and Austria imposed entry bans on Dodik and two other senior Republika Srpska officials.