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Pence, in Montenegro, assures Balkans of U.S. support

 
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, center, Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, left, and Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic attended the Adriatic Charter Summit.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence, center, Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev, left, and Montenegrin Prime Minister Dusko Markovic attended the Adriatic Charter Summit.
Published Aug. 3, 2017

Vice President Mike Pence told leaders of eight Balkan nations on Wednesday that "the future of the western Balkans is in the West," a signal of the United States' commitment to southeastern Europe and a warning against Russian encroachment in the region.

Speaking in Montenegro, which defied Russia by becoming the newest member of NATO in June, Pence praised the tiny nation for its independence.

"Your courage, particularly in the face of Russian pressure, inspires the world and I commend you for that," Pence said at a dinner Tuesday evening.

Russian officials were so incensed by Montenegro's decision to join NATO that they plotted a coup attempt in October to try to block the country from joining the alliance, Pence said — an accusation that Russia denies.

On Wednesday, in a 19-minute address to leaders at the Adriatic Charter Summit meeting, the vice president called Russia an "unpredictable country that casts a shadow from the east."

"Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force," Pence said. "And here in the western Balkans, Russia has worked to destabilize the region, undermine your democracies and divide you from each other and from the rest of Europe."

"The western Balkans have the right to decide your own future, and that is your right alone," he added.

Pence's tone on trans-Atlantic relations was far more reassuring than that of President Donald Trump, who once called NATO "obsolete," castigated allies for not spending more on defense and characterized the European Union as a tool of German influence.

Pence hewed Wednesday to a more traditional U.S. view of NATO and the European Union as bulwarks of Western democracy. "Whether your future is in NATO, the European Union or both, the United States supports you because either path will strengthen Europe," he told the Balkan leaders.

As to Trump's nationalist outlook, Pence said: "'America first' does not mean America alone."

Yet Jonathan D. Katz, a former State Department official who is now at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, expressed skepticism about Pence's performance.

"While his message of greater security support and further European-Atlantic integration should be of great relief to these countries, it is tainted by Trump's continued embrace of Putin and deep cuts in U.S. assistance to the Western Balkans," Katz said in an email, referring to President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

Along with Prime Minister Dusko Markovic of Montenegro, the leaders present included the prime minister of Albania, the chairman of the council of ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the prime minister of Croatia, the president of Kosovo, the prime minister of Macedonia, the prime minister of Slovenia and the prime minister of Serbia.

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Of the eight countries, two — Croatia and Slovenia — are members of the European Union. Four of them — Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and Slovenia — belong to NATO.

Seven of the eight countries at the summit meeting (all but Albania) emerged out of the breakup of the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Montenegro gained independence from Serbia in 2006, but Kosovo, which declared its own independence in 2008 with U.S. backing, is not recognized by Serbia or its historic patron, Russia.

Pence did not dwell on the past.

"You belong to a new generation of Balkan leaders, and this is a historic moment for progress in the western Balkans," he said on Wednesday. "I urge you with great respect to make the most of this moment."

Several of the leaders are, like Pence, fairly new to their jobs: Croatia's prime minister, Andrej Plenkovic, 47, a former diplomat and member of the European Parliament, took office last October; Macedonia's prime minister, Zoran Zaev, 42, in May; and Serbia's prime minister, Ana Brnabic, 41, the first woman and first openly gay person to hold that position, in June.

Albania's prime minister, Edi Rama, 53, a former artist and basketball player, showed up for the summit meeting in white sneakers.

Pence is the highest-ranking U.S. official in a century to visit Montenegro, a small country on the Adriatic Sea, and the first vice president to do so. Montenegro was the final stop of a trip that took Pence to Estonia, where he reassured leaders of the Baltic States, and Georgia, which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Echoing a point made by Montenegro's prime minister, the vice president said: "NATO is made up of large countries and small countries, but the U.S. has no small allies and we cherish our new alliance with Montenegro through NATO."