U.S. vice president Joe Biden has been greeted by a rally of hundreds of Donald Trump supporters during a visit to Serbia.
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Biden traveled late Tuesday on to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, where ethnic Albanian rebels sought independence after the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing campaign.
After talks with Kosovar President Hashim Thaci in Pristina, Biden traveled south and dedicated a road to his son Beau, who died of brain cancer previous year.
US Vice President Joe Biden, centre, waves to onlookers with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, right, as they walk along the vintage street Skadarlija in downtown Belgrade, Serbia.
Speaking before Biden, Thaci thanked the US vice president – a strong supporter of Kosovo during its struggle for independence – for being “the voice” of Kosovo.
Biden will travel to Kosovo on Wednesday, where the government recently announced it would be naming a road after his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in May 2015.
In addition, Biden’s visit also aimed to encourage Serbia to recognise Kosovo as a state, which it now does not do.
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo, its former southern province, as sovereign but has struck a series of deals brokered by the European Union to try to regulate relations between the two.
“He doesn’t understand it, he doesn’t have a clue”, Biden said in his first joint appearance with Clinton since she won their party’s nomination in Philadelphia.
As a USA senator during the 1990s, Biden was a strong advocate of American involvement in the war-torn Balkans.
Later Wednesday, Biden attended with his family an emotional ceremony naming a road near an American military base after his late son, Beau Biden, who died a year ago of brain cancer at age 46. “This is critical for advancing Kosovo and Serbia’s full integration into Europe”. “This is the biggest load of bull I’ve ever heard”, Clinton said, explaining that the emails contained information about phone calls that shouldn’t have been made public.
Meanwhile, Clinton said during her speech that if she wins she will ask Biden to continue heading the campaign he is now leading against cancer, with which he has involved himself since early 2016 after his 46-year-old son Beau died of a brain tumor the previous May. “On behalf of the Biden family, we are extremely grateful and humbled beyond words”.
While an ultra-nationalist party is calling on social media for Serbs to take part in a protest in Belgrade against Biden’s visit, there are no such qualms in Kosovo. “Biden will want to hear all about Serbia’s purchases of Russian weaponry and the Russian humanitarian center in the city of Nis, while Medvedev will want to hear what was discussed with Biden”.
The Kosovo war, which pitted Serbia’s armed forces against separatist ethnic Albanian rebels in the southern province, came to an end after a US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombing campaign against Serbia.
A North Atlantic Treaty Organisation bombardment in 1999 stopped Serbia’s crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists, ending Belgrade’s rule over Kosovo.
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Vucic said he was certain the USA wanted a stable and peaceful Western Balkans, adding that Serbia would do all it could to contribute to that.
