Biden kicks off lanmark Balkans tour

Agence France - Presse

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He spent yesterday in Bosnia-Herzegovina - accompanied there by the European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana - meeting with political leaders and delivering a speech in the Bosnian parliament. Biden, the highest-level U.S. official to visit Bosnia since President Bill Clinton in 1999, is expected to call on rival ethnic leaders to enact reforms critical to Bosnia's hopes of joining the EU and NATO military alliance. Coming only four months after Barack Obama was sworn in as U.S. president, Biden's three-day trip will take in Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo.

It follows the adoption in the House of Representatives last week of a resolution calling for urgent constitutional reforms in Bosnia and the appointment of a U.S. special envoy to the Balkans. Hailing the visit as "historic," Sarajevo's Dnevni Avaz daily 0said his trip means the "Balkans have again been put among the priorities of U.S. foreign policy."