NATO HQ Sarajevo  /  News  /  2014  /  Sarajevo holds a conference on Social Media and the impact for Partner Countries

Sarajevo holds a conference on Social Media and the impact for Partner Countries

On Wednesday, 23 April, NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Ted Whiteside and the Chairman of the BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegović opened the conference "Social Media: Impact for Partner Countries” in Sarajevo.

In his opening remarks, Mr. Whiteside noted that "social media and social networks could be used in a smart and wise manner in particular with regard to defense and security policy. He added that NATO chose BiH for such an event since there is an obvious interest for this topic among BiH politicians and diplomats.

NATO HQ Sarajevo Commander Brigadier General Merle D. Hart said that the Alliance  supports the open door policy for BiH as a partner country, and expressed his hope that BiH would continue its progress on Euro-Atlantic integrations path.   

"I am in particular pleased that NATO chose BiH as a venue to organize this event dedicated to social media and to demonstrate not only how they can be used and how they can assist to make changes in NATO member states, but also how they can be used to make good changes in BiH, too”, Hart said.

The conference success was coupled with the Panel discussion titled "65 years of NATO: Peace, Security and Development in Europe” which was held yesterday on the same location, with significant presence and interest of the local and regional media.

An overview about the North Atlantic Alliance operation in the last 65 years was given by General Merle D. Hart, Mr. Ted Whiteside, Chargé d'Affaires of the US Embassy Nicholas Hill and Ana Trišić-Babić, BiH Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.