US Vice President Mike Pence has said the future of Europe’s Balkan nations is in the West, reaffirming Washington’s commitment to the region as Russia works to assert its historical influence there.
Pence spoke in Montenegro, his third and final stop of a European trip that saw him voicing support for nations pressured by Russia and highlighting US allegiance to its allies overseas.
He is the highest-ranking American official to visit the small Adriatic state in more than 100 years.
“We truly believe the future of the Western Balkans is in the West,” Pence said in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital.
The Western Balkans refers to countries in the former Yugoslavia that aspire to or have already joined Western institutions, including the European Union and Nato.
It also includes Albania.
Montenegro joined Nato in June, a move that angered Moscow.
Russia had considered the country of 620,000 people, with an army of some 2,000 soldiers, its traditional Slavic ally.
Pence, who attended a summit of Balkan leaders yesterday, praised Montenegro for standing up to Russian pressure.
Its accession to Nato, Pence said, is “a sign of the strength of this country 10 years after independence”.
“I bring greetings from President Donald Trump, who sent me here as a visible sign of the alliance that we now enjoy through Nato,” the vice president said.
Russia is accused of masterminding an attempted coup in Montenegro in October to prevent it from joining Nato.
Moscow has denied the allegations.
In his address to the Balkan leaders, Pence called Russia an “unpredictable country” that wants to destabilise the region.
“As you well know, Russia continues to seek to redraw international borders by force.
“Here in the Western Balkans, Russia has worked to destabilise the region, undermining your democracies, and divide you from each other and from the rest of Europe,” he said.
“The Western Balkans have the right to decide your own future, and that is your right alone,” Pence said.
The Balkan states that are pro-West had feared Trump — who once called Nato an obsolete organisation — would leave them to the Russian sphere of influence.
Pence’s trip appeared intended to alleviate those fears amid the investigations in Washington into Russia’s efforts to interfere in last year’s presidential election.
“Nato is made up of large countries and small countries, but the US has no small allies.
“We cherish our new alliance with Montenegro through Nato,” Pence said.
During a formal dinner with Montenegro President Filip Vujanovic on Tuesday evening, Pence said Montenegro’s “courage, particularly in the face of Russian pressure, inspires the world.
“I commend you for that”.
Serbia is Russia’s only remaining ally in the Balkans, although Belgrade formally says it wants to join the European Union.
Serbia has been beefing up military ties with Moscow, while also maintaining a partnership relationship with Nato.
Earlier in his tour, Pence pledged support for the former Soviet republic of Georgia and met with the presidents of three Nato countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
He told reporters that “an attack on one of us is an attack on us all”.
Saying that Trump “knows security is the foundation of our prosperity,” Pence said America and the Baltic countries would try to find new ways to increase prosperity by increasing two-way trade that currently amounts to $3.5 billion and by increasing their mutual investments.
Energy is one way that Washington is seeking to tighten its commercial ties with the Baltic countries.
It signed a deal in June to sell liquefied natural gas (LNG) directly from the United States to the region.
A Lithuanian state-owned gas trading company will receive the first delivery of US imported LNG in August.
Pence said this will “benefit not only our prosperity, but regional security.
“And I am confident that this deal will only be the first of many.”
Georgia and the three Baltic nations were all occupied for nearly five decades by Soviet troops before regaining their independence in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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