PREVIEW: US refocusing on Balkans as Biden seeks new start in Serbia

May 16, 2009, 11:50 GMT

Washington/Belgrade - US Vice President Joe Biden embarks next week on a tour of the Balkans to 'refocus' on the region and 'reset' uneasy relations with Serbia, the largest and central former Yugoslav republic.

Starting Tuesday and ending Thursday, Biden is to visit Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo. Although the West remains frustrated by the stalled progress of Bosnia and concerned about the potential for violence in Kosovo, Biden's task is to offer a new start to Belgrade.

'This is a tremendous opportunity to make it very clear to the government of Serbia ... that we hope to be able to press the reset button with Serbia,' a senior US official said, acknowledging 'realistic expectations' that some differences 'we're not going to resolve, particularly over Kosovo.'

The task will not be easy, with relations burdened by the US role in the bombing a decade ago of Serbia - over the Milosevic regime's actions in Kosovo - and Washington's backing of Kosovo's secession last year from Serbia.

'Biden would probably try to perform a small miracle and demonstrate that America is fully open toward Serbia, ready not only for correct but good relations,' Washington-based Serbian analyst Obrad Kesic told the Voice of America radio.

'That will, however, be difficult within the context of conditioning, particularly that linked to the independence of Kosovo.'

The US official said that Biden, due Wednesday in Belgrade, would not press Serbia to recognize Kosovo's independence, asking only that Serbia refrain from undermining Kosovo's independence.

'We're very realistic about this. We're going to have to agree to disagree,' the official said. 'We have an opportunity to reset and restart the relationship between the United States and Serbia.'

Biden's visit signals a refocusing under new US President Barack Obama on the Balkan region, which was in the international spotlight during the wars of the 1990s but largely off the top-priority agenda during the post-9/11 US preoccupation with the Middle East.

Along with diplomatic leadership in the Balkans in the previous decade, the US led airstrikes against Serbs in Bosnia and Serbia, as well as anchoring peacekeeping missions in Bosnia and Kosovo.

Most recently, Washington strongly encouraged the majority Albanians in Kosovo to split early last year from Serbia, aggravating ties with Belgrade in the process.

In Kosovo, Biden on Thursday is expected to affirm US support for Kosovo and discourage separatist ambitions of the Serb minority dominating the northernmost section of the new country.

The United States views Kosovo as an independent and sovereign country. 'That's not going to change,' the US official said.

In Bosnia, where persistent mistrust of ethnic communities led to an utter institutional paralysis, he will 'underscore ... the need to work across ethnic lines.'

'The trip itself is the message,' the official said. 'After a period in which the US was not particularly focused on the Balkans ... (the trip) is indicative of a refocus on the region.'

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 integration.