Doing the right thing
Belgrade daily Blic asked this afternoon:
We would like your short[ly] comment on the statement of president of Serbia Mr. Tomislav Nikolic that vicepresident of USA Mr Joseph Biden is not well informed about Serbian politics on Kosovo.
I responded:
That just means Mr. Biden said something Mr. Nikolic did not like. It would be surprising if it were otherwise: Mr. Biden knows the Balkans better than any other prominent American politician. He has been a strong supporter of Kosovo independence and a united Bosnia and Herzegovina. What could he have possibly said that would please Mr. Nikolic?
A word or two more may be in order.
Joe Biden has also been an advocate of a softer approach to Serbia, which the Obama Administration assiduously pursued for its entire first term. It got nothing, so far as I can tell, in return. That of course corresponded mainly to Boris Tadic’s presidency, when both Europeans and Americans tredded lightly so as not to weaken the relatively moderate Tadic, who was challenged only from the nationalist right (principally by Nikolic).
Now that Nikolic is in power, there really is no reason to tred lightly. Neither Europeans nor Americans are inclined to do so. The Germans have been particularly forceful in insisting on the dismantling of Serbian parallel structures in northern Kosovo. The result has been realy progress, though no final agreement yet, in the Belgrade/Pristina talks.
There is some hope in Washington that Nikolic will also prove more pliable on Bosnia. He is not tied, as Boris Tadic was, to the Republika Srpska president, Milorad Dodik. My guess is that Dodik is doing his best to remedy that. The Americans likely figure that they will get more from Nikolic on Bosnia with a tough line these days than with the failed soft line they used without success in the past.
The Balkans do not rank high on Washington’s list of priorities these days. Even Joe Biden may not be so well-informed about Serbian politics on Kosovo, as Nikolic suggested. But the Vice President is still doing the right thing to insist that Serbia accept reality in Kosovo and Bosnia.
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2 thoughts on “Doing the right thing”
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A guess about what Nikolic had in mind: the great compromise that was reached (within the ruling coalition) over the Platform that was voted in as a Resolution governing Serbia’s position on the talks with Prishtina. In Belgrade this is apparently viewed as being the compromise that Belgrade is expected to make in the talks, and now it is Prishtina’s turn to give something – namely, a potential Republika Srpska in the North).
The Germans have been in town, a delegation from Merkel’s party in the Bundestag, and have issued their requirements for supporting Serbia’s desire for a starting date for talks. They’ve learned something about dealing with Serbia, obviously: this time they want commitments in writing, or before cameras. (Fule has been in both capitals in the past couple of days – in Belgrade, they kept assuring him that they’ve done enough to have earned a date to start talks (he’s probably too much the diplomat to have sighed in their presence); in Prishtina he complimented the government on meeting the short-term goals for the SAA set when he last visited. When the Albanians agree to do something, as a rule they simply go out and do it (although if it requires cooperation from Belgrade, it may take a while).
Could the difference in behavior go back to the countries’ different positions in the Ottoman Empire? Serbia had no incentive to comply with orders from above – evasion, delay, not-getting-around-to-it meant there might be a change in the government and they would be able to ignore a directive entirely. And direct refusal was too dangerous. The Albanians, on the other hand, were often the rulers trying to administer the various provinces of the Empire and undoubtedly took another view of the desirability of directives being promptly implemented.
Albanians only do something when Americans give them orders to do it. That is how they agree. They can not do simple thing if is not in line what Americans want. That much about their desire to do things.