Bosnia on verge of becoming 'landlocked'

a small strip of land gives bosnia herzegovina access to the adriatic sea now that coastline is on the verge of an effective blockade neighboring croatia is constructing a massive bridge to join its mainland with its southern territory the project dubbed as the pelicans bridge is a prerequisite for croatia to enter the borderless schengen area in doing so however the croatian project risks undermining bosnia's tiny coastline meanwhile the european union is less methodical about it brussels is eager to seal the deal and has provided funding for the croatian bridge but just as things couldn't get any more obscure the tender was commissioned to a chinese state-owned company backdoor deals are usually made in poorly lit rooms and the pelia sheds project is one that could effectively blockade bosnia's access to the sea with some politicians saying that the country is on the verge of becoming landlocked i'm your host shirvan and welcome to caspian report today's video is sponsored by blinkist with everyone being busier than ever it seems like there is hardly enough time to spend learning blinkist is an app that takes the highlights from non-fiction books and condenses it to 15 minutes which you can either read or listen to they have a huge library including items that we have reviewed in the past like the silk roads how democracies die the rational optimist why nations fail the accidental superpower and so on using blinkist you can go over the highlights of each title in a podcast style so if you're short on time this is the best technique to hone your knowledge the first 100 people to go to blinkist.com caspian report are going to get unlimited access for one week to try out you'll also get 25 percent off if you want the full membership so move fast and grab one of those political history books with its rugged mountains and lush valleys dotted with charming towns the balkan peninsula has seen all sorts of empires come and go the ethno-religious diversity characterizing the region has often led to violence conflict and disagreements in the western balkans the collapse of yugoslavia was followed by severe hostility among bosniaks serbs and croats that conflict ended only after nato intervention in 1995 the daytona accords put an end to the violence but it resulted in a complex political arrangement croatia inherited the archipelago along the eastern coast of the adriatic sea a place dotted with small islands shores towns etc making croatia a hot spot for tourism however its dubrovnik region in the south was separated from the mainland to the north cutting in between was the coastline of bosnia herzegovina the small strip of land known as the naom corridor gave sarajevo access to the adriatic sea now most people assume that the corridor is a modern byproduct of the yugoslav wars but this isn't so the formation of the neon corridor goes back to the 17th century at the time the ottomans were at conflict with the venetians and the principality of ragusa which is the historical name of the dubrovnik region voluntarily seeded strips of land to its north to the ottomans the intent was to create a buffer between venetia and dragusa later as the ottomans retreated from the balkans the pneum corridor was passed down to the austrian empire and then to yugoslavia though none of these historical entities exist today their political conspiracies still demarcate the neom shoreline when yugoslavia collapsed in the 1990s the coastline became part of bosnia-herzegovina bringing us to the current state of affairs for bosnia the neom corridor is a strategic asset though its length is only 20 kilometers naom allows bosnia to strike deals that it could not otherwise it granted sarajevo geopolitical flexibility a rare commodity in the balkans currently naom is only a small town of roughly 5 000 inhabitants its small fishing port is not suitable for bulk cargo which is why bosnia uses the croatian seaport of ploche as its main anchorage for exports and imports that said bosnian policy makers have long term plans to expand the port in naom into a fully operational seaport capable of handling millions of tons of bulk cargo doing so would grant bosnia a greater say in its foreign policy it would no longer depend on croatian ports for its maritime access for croatia the story is different naom is seen as a barrier to commerce tourism and transportation passing through the corridor is not easy travelers must first exit croatia then enter and exit bosnia before re-entering croatia there are four border checkpoints in a space of 20 kilometers under normal circumstances the highway going through naom would take no more than 15 minutes to traverse and before croatia joined the european union the border czechs were more relaxed with the involvement of brussels however checkpoint regulations have become more strict traffic is particularly congested during the high season when thousands of tourists headed for dubrovnik spent hours queuing between the croatian bosnian border checks so while the neom corridor holds geopolitical and geo-economic potential for bosnia it has been a source of commercial agony for croatia as a result zagreb has sought for ways to physically combine its territory and avoid the bosnian corridor a breakthrough was made in 1998 when croatia and bosnia-herzegovina agreed to a maritime border the pact known as the neom agreement was to grant free passages to croatian transit traffic between its separated territories through bosnian territory by 2012 the deal had been fully augmented and its provisions covered a range of topics including license plates documents accidents etc but right around the time two things happened that changed the terms and conditions and left the neom agreement on ice first croatia joined the european union what was earlier a bilateral agreement became subject to multilateral discussion bearing the obligations of the schengen area in mind second while the negotiations were ongoing zagreb decided to go ahead regardless and drafted a blueprint to connect its territory that draft was the pelia shots project a massive bridge with a length of 2.4 kilometers and the height of 55 meters it was a landmark infrastructure plan upon completion it would rank as the second longest bridge in europe the pelia shots bridge would bring territorial cohesion to croatia and make the country eligible to join the schengen area at the same time it would improve the flow of goods and people and strengthen the overall economic conditions even though the neom agreement was never ratified croatia gave the paleo shots project the go-ahead in 2007 then just as construction was to commence the financial crisis hit much like the rest of eastern europe croatia was hurt badly construction on the paleoshots bridge froze and the situation remained as such for the next decade in 2017 with the aid of the european union the plan was revived croatia obtained about eighty-five percent of the funding for the paleo shots project from the eu and the much delayed bridge was back on track the government in sarajevo however was less cheerful bosnian lawmakers opposed the project claiming that croatia will inadvertently blockade bosnia's access to the sea thereby discouraging trade commerce and investments in the vicinity of neo whether this is true is unknown no studies have been conducted on this issue but it stands to reason that bosnia's connection to the sea will diminish while its expansion plans for neon seaport will crumble when the palyaschat's bridge is complete the flow of goods and people is likely to alternate perhaps not all of it but certainly enough to make a lasting impression it follows that bosnian policy makers are upset with the croatian bridge and consider it an assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of bosnia-herzegovina sarajevo says that it has the right to file a lawsuit against croatia at the international tribunal for the law of the sea zagreb meanwhile argues that the pelia shit's bridge does not violate international law and that the construction applies the highest professional criteria more specifically the croatians claim that the bridge's 55 meter height is sufficient to allow safe passage into neo the law of the sea convention is somewhat ambiguous on the issue while certain provisions call for archipelago states to designate sea lanes for the safe passage of ships the criteria is ambiguous as a rule of thumb the dimensions of the golden gate bridge whose clearance above high water averages 67 meters is usually applied when it comes to such constructions the paleo shots bridge is 12 meters short of that so the dispute is not so much about the construction as its design now technically bosnia could file a lawsuit but the trouble is that there is no political unity on the matter a flaw that is part of the character of sarajevo you see at the federal level the bosnian constitution recognizes three constituent groups bosniaks serbs and croats all three factions are represented in the country's political structures and the communities share power through a rotating presidency maintaining this arrangement is key to bosnia's stability so while bosniak politicians insist that the croatian bridge is an attack on state sovereignty bosnian croats who account for 98 of the population in neom do not see anything provocative at the same time bosnian serbs feel indifferent to the whole dispute this then explains bosnia's in-earth attitude and its inability to mobilize against the palliations project still interesting the controversy surrounding the bridge goes beyond bosnia although the european union finances the project the construction is being built by the china road and bridge corporation a chinese state-owned company this makes the pelia shots project the first eu-funded venture built by a chinese company brussels picked beijing because it was cheaper but china's motive to partake in this infrastructure endeavor relates to the belt and road initiative in a place as the balkans with its crumbling infrastructure chinese companies are involved in dozens of ventures such as motorways in montenegro a steel factory in serbia and coal power plants in bosnia-herzegovina etc these projects benefit the local nations but they also grant china influence vis-a-vis its relationship with the european union taken together there is little bosnia can do to halt or redesign the palyasatsu bridge the combined interests of the european union and china outweigh the capacities of bosnia plus croatia's needs are just as valid as bosnia's anxieties so the situation will likely agitate considering its history and in the balkans that typically leads to trouble for history always manages to get in the way of progress i've been your host shivan from caspian report if you enjoy our content please remember to hit the like button comment and subscribe also click the links below doing so helps support our content making thank you for watching and seoul [Music] you

Channel: CaspianReport

Views: 829,765

Rating: 4.8100014 out of 5

Keywords: Bosnia, Croatia, Neum, Coastline, Borders, Balkans, Peljesac, Bridge, EU, Schengen Area, Corridor, Port, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Ragusa, Venetia, Ottoman, Austria, China, Dubrovnik, Trade, Interesting, Geography, Facts, Countries, Map, World, Nations, Analysis, Politics, Economics, Geopolitics, Power, Serbia

Id: BtmWtIUnMjc

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 28 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/WuhanLabTechnician]

Submission statement:

Croatia's Peljesac Bridge is a prerequisite to enter the borderless Schengen Area. In doing so, however, the project risks undermining Bosnia’s tiny coastline.

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Bosnian authorities initially opposed the building of the bridge, originally planned to be only 35 meters (115 feet) high, because it would have made it impossible for large ships to enter the harbor of Neum. Although Neum harbor is not currently fit for commercial traffic, and most of the trade to and from Bosnia and Herzegovina goes through the Croatian port of Ploče, the Bosnian government declared that a new one might be built in the future, and that the construction of the bridge would compromise this ambition.

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Croatia claims that the bridge is located exclusively within Croatian territory and Croatian territorial waters and that it is thus entitled under the international law of the sea to construct the bridge without requiring any consent from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia also expressed commitment to fully respect the international rights enjoyed by other countries in the Pelješac peninsula, including the right of innocent passage enjoyed by all countries under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, and the right of Bosnia and Herzegovina to have unrestricted access to the high seas.

https://balkaninsight.com/2018/07/30/bosnia-and-croatia-in-new-row-over-peljesac-bridge-07-30-2018/

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https://www.cntraveler.com/story/how-bosnia-ended-up-with-just-12-miles-of-coastline

[u/Derpex5]

Just sell Neum and get it over with

[u/sanderudam]

Just build the bridge higher. Let the EU help pay the extra cost. EU is interested in having good relations with Bosnia. Surely it is a minor problem?

[u/Pieterstern]

Very interesting, I've never heard about this channel. Thanks for sharing !

[u/doormatt26]

I understand Bosnia doesn’t want their options cut off, but the idea of building a separate commercial grade port just a couple miles down the coast from Ploce smack in the middle of your only tourist beach seems... fanciful. I don’t know what Bosnia’s EU prospects are, but I’d imagine joining or arriving at a trade deal allowing cheap shipment through Ploce would be much easier than a huge port investment.

[u/RedSnt]

Hard to feel bad for Bosnia when they've just been sitting on their hands instead of building a port with that tiny bit of sea access they have. Had they built a port first they would've had a much bigger bargaining chip regarding that bridge.

[u/boka_67]

Only coastline that BiH has is in city of Neum. Neum is tourist city with many beaches. Because it's only BiH city on the coast, it is packed with hotels and apartments. Bosniak politicians want Neum to be a seaport, but that is impossible to achieve because none of the Neum residents want that, and would never sell their properties because they live of tourism. Croatian and Serbian politicians in BiH have nothing against Croatian bridge, as well as Neum residents who are overwhelmingly Croatians. Bridge would only help them get rid of traffic problems with people going trough their town to Dubrovnik, for example.

[u/theriderofrohan7]

You can watch the construction of Pelješac Bridge live here. It's almost done.

[u/Ramp_Up_Then_Dump]

Imagine Bosnia is in turmoil and they need help from their allies. But unfortunately they are lnd locked now.

Having a coast is huge deal. Aid from land and sea are not equal.