BUDAPEST, June 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik met Hungarian premier Viktor Orban in Budapest Thursday, his first visit to an EU member since Bosnia's federal authorities issued an arrest warrant against him on secession charges.

   The president of Republika Srpska (RS) -- the ethnic Serb part of Bosnia -- was sentenced to a year in prison in February by a Sarajevo court.

   He was also banned from holding public office for six years for not complying with rulings by the international envoy overseeing Bosnia's 1995 peace accords. 

   "The Republic of Srpska is fortunate to have friends like @PM_ViktorOrban" Dodik wrote on the X social platform, sharing pictures of his meeting with Hungary's nationalist leader.

   Hungary has consistently condemned US and EU attempts to pressure or sanction Dodik.

   Days before the verdict against him was read, Budapest deployed a contingent of its counter-terrorism forces to the Bosnian Serb capital Banja Luka, officially for a "training exercise".

   But central European investigative website VSquare alleged that the special forces were sent to help Dodik escape if his immediate arrest was ordered.

   Dodik said his talks with Orban Thursday "did not focus solely on economic issues, but also on certain political and strategic issues," he added in a later post.

   In a parliamentary speech last month, Dodik said he wanted to establish a "partnership in the field of strategic minerals" with the United States and Hungary, over Republika Srpska's significant lithium, magnesium and boron deposits.

   In response to the Sarajevo court's verdict in February, the parliament in the Republika Srpska passed a law prohibiting the central police and judicial authorities from operating in the Serb entity. 

   That led to the central Bosnian judicial authorities issuing a national arrest warrant for Dodik on charges of undermining "constitutional order".

   Last month federal police officers in plain clothes tried to enter an official building in East Sarajevo, a Serb-controlled area of the Bosnian capital, which Dodik was visiting, but were blocked by Bosnian Serb interior ministry forces.

   Since the end of the war in 1995, Bosnia has been divided into two autonomous entities -- the Republika Srpska and the Croat-Muslim Federation -- connected by a weak central government. 

   Bosnia's central judicial authorities asked Interpol to take action against Dodik, who has led the RS since 2006, but it has not as yet issued a red notice against him.

   A red notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition or other legal action. 

   Dodik has also travelled to Serbia, Russia and Israel in recent months.