Biden offers Serbia ‘strong, new relationship,’ EU push

‘Go home, Nazi scum,’ Serb hardliners tell visiting US vice president

Serb ultra-nationalist lawmakers hold up posters reading ‘Biden, you Nazi scum, go home,’ at the Serbian parliament in Belgrade yesterday. US Vice President Joe Biden promised that the US ‘does not expect’ Serbia to recognize Kosovo’s independence as a ‘precondition’ for EU membership.

BELGRADE (Combined reports) – US Vice President Joe Biden offered Serbia “a strong, new relationship” with the USA yesterday, along with help in its European Union membership bid, despite deep differences over independence for Kosovo.

Biden said after his talks with Serbia’s pro-Western President Boris Tadic that the USA wants to see the Balkan country take its place in Europe “as a strong, successful democratic state” playing a constructive role in the still-volatile region.

Biden arrived from Bosnia, the first stop on a three-day tour of the Balkans meant to demonstrate renewed US interest in the region where bloody ethnic wars were fought in the 1990s, which the West accused Serbia of fomenting.

“I came to Serbia on behalf of the Obama-Biden administration with a clear message: The United States wants to, likes to, deepen its relations with Serbia,” Biden said.

“Serbia is central to the Southeast European future,” he said. “The region cannot fully succeed without Serbia playing a constructively leading role.” Tadic said Biden’s visit “could set the stage for the formulation of a new American policy toward Serbia and the Balkans.” Unprecedented security measures were in place in the Serbian capital for the visit by the highest-ranking US official to visit since President Jimmy Carter was here in 1980.

Police banned all anti-American protests planned by nationalists during the visit. However, a few hundred Radical Party supporters staged a small protest in a Belgrade suburb, and their lawmakers carried anti-Biden leaflets during a parliament session yesterday. “Biden, you Nazi scum, go home,” said the posters brandished by opposition Radical Party deputies during a live national broadcast of a parliament sitting.

Mistrust stems from the 1999 US-led NATO bombing of Serbia that ended the country’s rule in Kosovo, the southern province that declared independence last year with Washington’s backing. Nationalist parties have opposed Biden’s visit, saying it amounts to a “humiliation” of the country. They accuse Biden of being the chief advocate of the 1999 bombing over Kosovo.

Biden said in Sarajevo yesterday that he was a strong critic of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who was accused of triggering the Balkan conflict. Biden conceded that Serbia and the US disagree on Kosovo, the predominantly ethnic Albanian-populated region considered by Serbs the medieval cradle of their statehood and religion. “The United States does not, and I emphasize, does not expect Serbia to recognize the independence of Kosovo,” Biden said. “It is not a precondition for our relationship, or our support for Serbia becoming a part of the European Union.” He said, “In return, we expect Serbia to cooperate with the European Union and other key international actors” in Kosovo “and look for pragmatic solutions that would improve the lives of all the people in Kosovo, both Serbs and Albanians, and avoid making them the victims of political disagreement.” Tadic reiterated that Serbia would never recognize Kosovo’s statehood and that it would try to retain it by peaceful, diplomatic means. Serbia has the backing of Russia on the UN Security Council. Today, Biden’s last stop on his Balkan tour will be Kosovo, which he said is expected to remain committed to protecting all communities, including the minority Serbs. In Bosnia yesterday, Biden sharply rebuked Bosnia’s leaders and warned that continued ethnic divisions threatened to return the country to the chaos of the wars of the 1990s.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana yesterday described as an “electric shock” the message he and Biden delivered to Bosnian leaders to shape up on reforms. “Talking about the visit yesterday, I qualified it... as a certain type of electric shock,” Solana told journalists in Sarajevo a day after he accompanied Biden on the Bosnian leg of a three-day Balkans tour. “We sent a very clear message about how to move the country forward toward the EU,” Solana added. (AP, AFP)