NATO Deputy Secretary General Shekerinska Meets Bosnia-Herzegovina — NAC Discusses Alliance Integration Amid Transatlantic Rift

NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska met with Bosnia and Herzegovina's Presidency and participated in a formal session of the North Atlantic Council on May 6, 2026, focused on strengthening NATO-Bosnia cooperation and Bosnia's Euro-Atlantic integration pathway. The meeting took on additional significance in the context of the ongoing US-NATO crisis: with Washington's attention consumed by the burden-sharing confrontation with core European allies, smaller aspirant states like Bosnia face uncertainty about whether the post-Trump US will prioritize further NATO enlargement in the Western Balkans. Shekerinska — NATO's first female Deputy Secretary General and a former North Macedonian prime minister — reaffirmed NATO's commitment to open-door policy and the alliance's enduring interest in Western Balkans stability. Bosnia has faced significant internal obstacles to NATO membership, including obstruction from the Republika Srpska entity whose leadership maintains close ties with Serbia and Russia. The Shekerinska-Bosnia meeting signals that, even at the height of the internal US-European tensions, NATO's institutional machinery continues to operate across its full geographic remit — the alliance's bureaucratic and diplomatic functions proceeding independently of the political crisis at its apex.