Biden arrives in Bosnia for three-day Balkans tour

May 19, 2009, 9:37 GMT

Sarajevo - US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Bosnia Tuesday to launch a mini-tour of three troubled Balkan nations and assert 'refocused' American interests in the region. On the trip, which is scheduled to last through Thursday, Biden is also expected to visit Serbia and Kosovo. The United States engaged warplanes over all three countries during the 1990s and led peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Joined by the European Union foreign policy and security supremo Javier Solana, Biden is expected to ask Bosnian leaders - Muslims, Serbs and Croats - to begin working across ethnic divides to restart the country's stalled international integration.

The US-brokered Dayton peace agreement ended the Bosnian war in 1995, effectively dividing it into two 'entities,' the Muslim and Croat Federation Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Serb Republic.

But plagued by persisting hostility, the two parts of the country have become unable to work together under the umbrella of the joint state.

In Belgrade on Wednesday, Biden is set to offer a 'restart' of relations soured since Serbia's confrontation with the West over Bosnia and Kosovo in the 1990s, which eventually led to NATO bombing both Bosnian Serbs and Serbia proper.

Serbian observers, however, expect Biden to warn Belgrade against encouraging separatist aspirations of ethnic Serbs in Bosnia and Kosovo.

On the final stop of the tour, in Pristina, he is scheduled to voice support of Kosovo's sovereignty and integrity, but also demand full respect for minority rights, officials said ahead of Biden's departure.

In Kosovo plans call for him to visit US troops serving with the NATO-led peacekeeping mission sent there after the war with Serbia a decade ago.

Kosovo used to be a Serbian province with a majority Albanian population. Following an Albanian insurgency and a heavy-handed Belgrade response, NATO intervened against Serbia and ousted its security forces in 1999.

After nine years of United Nations administration, the authorities in Pristine declared independence from Serbia in February 2008 and were quickly recognized by the United States and most EU nations.

After its strong role in the Balkans during the Yugoslav wars and their aftermath, the US largely shifted its interest to the Middle East and the war on terrorism.

'After a period in which the US was not particularly focused on the Balkans ... (the trip) is indicative of a refocus on the region,' a senior administration official said in Washington ahead of Biden's departure.

In his words, the US 'is back' in the Balkans with the same intensity as in the 1990s, 'but in a different way,' now emphasizing the region's European and NATO integration.