SARAJEVO -- Bosnia-Herzegovina's Foreign Ministry has sent a protest note to Montenegro over what it called "controversial statements" by the right-wing speaker of the country's parliament implying statehood for Republika Srpska, the mostly Serb entity that makes up about half of Bosnia.
Speaker Andrija Mandic referred to an "All-Serb Assembly" in Belgrade on June 8 attended by the leadership of Republika Srpska as "a gathering of two states."
The Bosnian Serbs' leadership has repeatedly threatened to break away from the rest of Bosnia and has taken steps in the past two years to establish key parallel institutions.
"Even though we know him, even though he constantly behaves like this, we will always respond to attempts to attack the constitutional architecture of Bosnia-Herzegovina," Bosnian Foreign Minister Ellmedin Konakovic said.
He said Bosnian officials were considering sending a note of protest to Serbia as well.
The June 8 assembly in Belgrade was organized under the slogan "One people, one assembly -- Serbia and Srpska."
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic shows a Serbian flag during the "All-Serb Assembly" in Belgrade on June 8.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has kept a number of its post-Yugoslav neighbors with Serbian minorities off-balance with appeals to Serbian ethnicity and nationhood as well as Christian Orthodoxy.
Pro-Moscow Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, accused of corruption and targeted by Western sanctions over his moves toward secession, has wielded mostly unrivaled power among Bosnian Serbs for decades and actively undermined Bosnian statehood.
Bosnia was admitted as a member of the United Nations in May 1992.
The constitution of Bosnia -- comprising Republika Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, along with the self-governing Brcko District -- arose from the Dayton agreement that ended the Bosnian War in 1995.
Montenegro declared independence from its State Union with Serbia following a referendum in May 2006 and has grappled with identity issues stemming from its close historical, religious, and ethno-national ties with Serbs.
Among other assertions, its participants described Kosovo -- a partially recognized state that declared independence from Serbia in 2008 -- as "an inalienable part of Serbia."
U.S. officials have called the "All-Serb Assembly" assertions an attack on Bosnia's postwar institutions.
In a statement on June 11, the State Department reaffirmed its support for Bosnia's unity, saying, "As we have consistently made clear, we firmly support the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and multiethnic character of Bosnia-Herzegovina, of which Republika Srpska is a part."