Wed, May 20, 2009
SARAJEVO – Vice President Joe Biden pledged the United States' support for Balkan nations' bid to integrate with the European Union in a speech Tuesday before Bosnia's central parliament.
"The door is open for the countries of this region for the first time in history to be an integral part of a free Europe. The US will help you walk through that door," Biden told deputies.
"The Obama-Biden administration will sustain and re-energize its commitment to Europe. We are back, we will stay," he stressed, referring to US policy toward both Western Europe and the Balkans.
Biden, the highest-level US official to visit Bosnia since President Bill Clinton in 1999, called on ethnic leaders to enact reforms critical to Bosnia's hopes of joining the EU and NATO military alliance.
"This parliament has the opportunity to grasp the future of integration," he said, adding the choice was one of "falling back" into conflicts of the past or joining Euro-Atlantic institutions.
Bosnia's political scene has been tense since 2006 elections propelled into office Bosnian Serb Prime Minister Milorad Dodik and the Muslim member of Bosnia's tripartite presidency, Haris Silajdzic.
Biden arrived in Bosnia on Tuesday at the start of a three-day Balkans tour to show US engagement in a region still wracked by the tensions that triggered Yugoslavia's bloody break-up almost two decades ago.
He is due to travel to Serbia on Wednesday and on to Kosovo on Thursday.
(Agencies)
