19 May 2009
Biden Urges Bosnia to Put Aside Ethnic, Party Differences
Washington — The United States will help Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other Balkan nations to join the European Union as the “only real path to a secure and prosperous future,” Vice President Biden says.
In a speech May 19 in Sarajevo to the Bosnian parliament, Biden urged politicians to set aside differences and work across ethnic and party lines.
“Our message is clear: the Obama-Biden administration will sustain and re-energize the long-standing American commitment to a Europe that is whole, free and at peace. The door is open for the countries of this region to be a part of that Europe,” Biden said in the prepared text of his remarks released in Washington.
“The United States will help you to walk through that door.”
But Biden told the legislators that the United States has been worried about the direction of the country. “For three years we have seen a sharp and dangerous rise in nationalist rhetoric designed to play on people’s fears to stir up anger and resentment,” he said.
Biden said the only real future is to join Europe as Bosnia and Herzegovina, but “right now, you’re off that path.”
The vice president told the parliament that there have been attempts to roll back critical reforms of the last decade that had prompted the European Union and NATO to offer membership. “We have heard voices speaking the language of maximalism and absolutism that destroys states, not the language of compromise and cooperation that builds them,” he said.
“The results are predictable: deepening mistrust between communities, deadlock on reforms, and dangerous talk about the country’s future that is reminiscent of the tragedies the people of this country have worked so hard to overcome,” Biden said. “This must stop.”
In 1995, the United States helped broker a peace agreement that preserved the country’s international borders and ended three years of war. The conference was held at the U.S. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, and the final agreement reached in November 1995 was named the Dayton Accords.
“You must focus your talent and energy on issues of undisputed interest to all Bosnians — creating jobs, growing the economy, educating your children,” Biden said. “You must accept that Bosnia needs checks and balances to protect the interests of all constituent peoples and minorities.”
Biden landed in Sarajevo on May 19, his first stop in a three-day tour of the Balkans that takes him to Serbia on May 20 and then Kosovo on May 21. In Sarajevo, Biden was joined by Javier Solana, the European Union high representative for common foreign policy and security policy, and High Representative for Bosnia Valentin Inzko.
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