Posted on 05/20/2009 2:51:15 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
US Vice President Joe Biden offered Belgrade a clean slate in ties here Wednesday promising Serbia would not have to recognise the independence of breakaway Kosovo.
"The United States does not, I emphasise, does not expect Serbia to recognise the independence of Kosovo," Biden told a joint media conference with Serbia's pro-Western president Boris Tadic.
"It is not a precondition for our relationship or our support for Serbia becoming part of the European Union."
Biden, the most senior US official to visit Serbia since Jimmy Carter came to the then Yugoslav republic as president in 1980, said the US administration wanted to repair ties with Belgrade frayed by US support for Kosovo's split in February last year.
"We can agree to disagree provided that we have reasonable expectations for one another," he said of the Kosovo dispute.
The US vice president voiced strong support for Serbia's hopes of joining the EU. So far it has been held up by Serbia's failure to capture the last two remaining war crimes fugitives including Bosnian Serb genocide suspect Ratko Mladic.
"We will use our influence, our energy and our resources to promote Serbia's Euro-Atlantic aspirations," he said.
Tadic reiterated his country's opposition to the independence of Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority.
"It is Serbia's legitimate right to defend its territorial integrity through the use of peaceful, diplomatic and legal means," Tadic said of Belgrade's world court case on the move's legality.
"Notwithstanding our different positions on the Kosovo question, Serbia wishes for the best possible relations with the United States.
"I am convinced that we can achieve a great deal on the basis of dialogue rooted in mutual respect," said Tadic, who invited President Barack Obama to visit.
Biden paid a solemn tribute to late reformist Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic at the site of his 2003 assassination outside the government building, after meeting with his widow Ruzica.
Later, he met with Defence Minister Dragan Sutanovac, whose office said in a statement that they discussed Serbian "engagement in maintaining global peace," without specifying.
Authorities beefed up security for Biden's visit, closing Serbia's air space and banning all public gatherings, including possible anti-US protests.
Last year nationalist extremists torched the US embassy, just days after Kosovo seceded from Serbia and received prompt US recognition.
Most Serbs consider Kosovo their historic heartland, but ethnic Albanians outnumber them by around nine to one in the disputed region of some two million inhabitants.
Hardliners are deeply sceptical of Biden's visit.
Shortly after he arrived in Belgrade, Serb ultra-nationalist lawmakers held up insulting signs in a live television broadcast from parliament against Biden, considered a strong Kosovo independence backer.
"Biden, you Nazi scum, go home," said posters brandished by opposition Radical Party members during the parliament meeting.
Radical leader Dragan Todorovic described Biden's visit as "the saddest day in Serbia's history," denouncing him as the main "inspirer" of "all bad things that have struck the Serbian people."
US warplanes took part in NATO's 1999 bombing of Serbia to end a violent crackdown on separatist Kosovo Albanian rebels by forces loyal to late president Slobodan Milosevic.
On Tuesday, Serbia suffered another blow in its diplomatic fight against Kosovo's independence when Bahrain and Comoros recognised its statehood. Sixty countries now recognise Kosovo.
Biden is on a three-day Balkans tour that took him to Bosnia on Tuesday. He is to visit Kosovo on Thursday before heading to Lebanon on Friday.
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said Biden can expect a "magnificent" welcome when he arrives in Pristina, where "thank you" billboards and thousands of students will await his convoy.
Watch Obama reverse this.. Is this a case of Biden’s foot in mouth disease? Obama owes the muslies...
When did the USA join the EU? Is there anyone in this administration that has two brain cells to rub together?
Thanks ‘Plugs McPlagerizer’ ; I’m sure that the officials of the European Union are relieved to have your input on this.
The EU is not (yet) a "state" in that sense and doesn't (yet) coordinate foreign policy for the member-states. Kosovo HAS been recognized by 22 out of 27 individual EU members. It's a little disturbing that the US can first recognize Kosovo and now claim that it's not a "big issue" that Serbia won't. Essentially, Biden is saying that Kosovo is a sovereign state, but that it's a-ok that Serbia maintains their territorial claim on the region (and, presumbly, act to re-take it).
Also, if Biden thinks this is not a big issue in Europe and for the EU, he's sadly ignorant of how sticky and loaded the Balkans are in Europe and how much history is connected with this region. I wish he'd pick up a history-book and look up "World War I". Then he can come back and say that instability on the Balkans is nothing to worry about...
Wow. Next thing ya know, biden will be saying that clinton’s war in yugoslavia was a big dumb mistake.
The CIA tricked Biden with “faulty” intelligence...
WOW..I’m stunned!
WOW..I’m stunned!
I understand the concept, but those words make no sense
Oh. Which time and with what story?
LOL, good one!
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