White House looking for date for Trump's visit, here's which US presidents already visited Belgrade

Illustration: Nikola Jovanovic; Photo: Profimedia/Roger Viollet/KEYSTONE/Zuma Press

US President Donald Trump intends to visit Serbia, we must work on finding a date, said Richard Grenell, thus announcing the possibility of a US president arriving on an official visit to our country for the first time in 40 years.

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"Now we have to work on finding a date that would suit both the White House and the National Security Council, which would also be involved in organizing the visit," Grenell said.

During a recent trip to the United States and meetings at the White House, President Vucic invited Donald Trump to visit our country, and as Reuters reported, the US president said that he was looking forward to coming to Belgrade and Pristina one day in the not-too-distant future.

The last official visit of a US president took place in 1980.

Bearing in mind that the victory of Donald Trump in the presidential elections changed the position of the United States regarding Serbia, and that things moved from the stance that the Kosovo issue had been resolved in 2008 to Washington taking into account Belgrade's views, one gets the impression that the pieces of the puzzle for Trump's visit might soon fall into place.

Which US presidents have visited our country so far?

The last president of the United States to visit former Yugoslavia was Jimmy Carter, who arrived in Belgrade four months after the death of Josip Broz Tito in 1980. On that occasion, he visited Broz's grave, laid wreaths and paid his respects. The two statesmen had a meeting in Washington two years earlier.

This was also the last time that an American president was in our country.

Before Carter, Gerald Ford also visited our country, accompanied by then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. A large American delegation visited Belgrade on August 3 and 4, 1975.

He arrived at the Belgrade airport with his wife, sons and a large number of associates and professional staff. In addition to the presidential plane, six other aircraft landed providing various forms of logistical support.

He planted a "tree of peace" together with Tito, which then Belgrade Mayor Zivorad Kovacevic said was a silver fir that originated in Colorado.

The topics of conversation in the meetings were similar to today's - terrorism, events in the Middle East, an economic crisis... Ford said after the meeting that the talks were too short and that they also spoke about bilateral economic and military relations.

"And in both cases, I made it clear that I was personally very interested due to their importance," Ford said at the time.

The most talked about visit is certainly the one that happened in 1970, when then US President Richard Nixon arrived here for a three-day visit. It was different in many ways, mostly because the American president breached protocol several times, which is not usual in these circumstances.

Josip Broz Tito and Richard Nixon in 1971; Photo: Wikimedia Commons/U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Nixon's arrival brought traffic in Belgrade, at the intersection near the London Hotel, to a standstill, when on the first day of his visit the US president suddenly stopped the car and started shaking hands with Belgraders, and at one point, while driving, shouted "Long live Yugoslavia" through the open roof of the car.

During his official address to then President Josip Broz Tito, he extended an invitation for him to visit the United States, which also deviated from standard norms.

(Telegraf.rs)