Experienced US politician on his country's future stance towards us: "Serbia has earned points"

Photo: Tanjug/AP

Former US State Department official Bertram Braun has assessed that Serbia could have excellent cooperation with the administration of new US President Joe Biden - if it maintains the positive attitude that the Trump administration had towards the Balkans.

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During the NATO Week summit in Belgrade, Braun also praised Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vucic for their attitude towards Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), but also for cooperation with Pristina and Albania.

He added that Serbia "earned points with America" ​​by the very fact that it is stable and that it acted as a stabilizing factor in the Balkans, especially in relation to BiH.

"Serbia is definitely doing a great service to Bosnia by maintaining a stable relationship with the Serb Republic (Republika Srpska, RS). President Vucic is cooperating with Kosovo and Albania in a reasonable way. In that sense, Vucic's administration will certainly have good relations with Biden's administration," said Braun.

He added that the United States should continue to support the dialogue and use its power to further enable and facilitate the dialogue.

"America is key when it comes to Kosovo, it can ensure cooperation of the Kosovo government. In that sense, if we want to reach an agreement, America is of key importance and can really help," said Braun.

In his view Trump was a catastrophe for America and its position in the world, but not for the Balkans. As Braun said, the US policy in the Balkans maintained continuity during the Trump administration.

However, he believes that the reason behind it is that officials in the Trump administration, as he claims, did not know anything about the Balkans, so they left everything to experts such as Matthew Palmer.

"That lack of interest from high-ranking officials and politicians was actually good for the Western Balkans. On the other hand, people who came from the US did not bring with them negative attitudes from the 1990s towards Serbia. Before that, Serbia was under pressure, criticism, and now the Trump administration treated Serbia as a normal country, mostly out of ignorance, and that was good," said Braun.

He also believes that the signing of the agreement in Washington and the Prespa agreement, as well as membership of North Macedonia and Montenegro in NATO, are of exceptional importance.

"We heard criticism that it was done merely to have something on paper, but it turned out that there is interest in the situation in the region," said Braun and added that he hopes Biden would push that.

"I think that will help the region in economic terms, especially Serbia and Kosovo. The Washington agreement is in line with Europe's emphasis on regional cooperation. Whether you call it the common European market or the mini Schengen, it all goes in the same direction and it fits perfectly into the broader European policy of regional cooperation," Braun added.

He assessed that the biggest failure of the Trump administration was poor cooperation with Europe, and underlined that greater success is always achieved when Europe and America cooperate, have the same approach and jointly use their levers of power.

He believes that Biden is "sophisticated enough" to understand that times have changed and that all countries have changed, including Serbia, which, as he stated, has perhaps changed the most.

"I expect that the Biden administration will have continuity with the Trump and Obama administrations and that it will continue in the now already set direction. I think that contribution of the US is extremely important," said Braun.

He recalled that Biden supports Euro-Atlantic integration and knows all world leaders, and also knew the former prime minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic.

However, Braun believes that the Balkans will not top the list of the new administration's priorities, but sees that as something positive because progress has been made in the region.

"Our strategy here in the Balkans was Euro-Atlantic integration, European integration and integration into European structures. If that is still the goal, we should invest all our energy,rather than divide it into various initiatives," said Braun.

He pointed out that Europeans should support and accelerate European integration, while America should help speed up the process.

He also expressed support for regional cooperation, saying it is accelerating wider European integration.

Braun said that regional mechanisms of the International War Crimes Tribunal should continue to be supported, and that violence must not be allowed to occur in the region, "regardless of what problem appears on the scene."

(Telegraf.rs)