TIRANA, Nov. 9 – The West should stop coddling Western Balkans corrupt leaders, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hoyt Yee said this week at a special conference discussing the role of the international community in the region.
Western Balkan trends require a more active and visible engagement of the United States not to allow the undoing of the marked successes since the halt of bloody conflicts of the 1990s, he added.
Yee warned about the risk posed by the stagnation of reforms, Russian geostrategic ambitions and the penetration of radical Islamism — which require American engagement in the future.
It is time for the Balkans to be treated as a priority for U.S. foreign policy, said analyst Daniel Serwer, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, speaking at the same event.
A Europe preoccupied with internal pressure in the European Union, burdened by a long-term economic crisis and under the pressure of far-right currents, has failed to do enough to help the Balkans on the path of reforms, said Serwer.
He proposed a high profile engagement in the U.S. administration.
“I propose to officially charge the U.S. Vice President with the task of the Balkan portfolio,” said Serwer.
Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Yee, who is closely associated with the Western Balkans, says the West should be more cautious with leaders accused of transgression or corruption in their own countries.
“It is to be ashamed that political leaders of the Balkans, despite punishable acts, are welcomed in many European capitals, as if their acts are not bad. When citizens in these countries see their leaders at high-level meetings in Europe and Washington, they draw conclusions. If these leaders are not allowed in certain meetings and circles and clear reasons why this would have a positive impact on the developments in these countries,” Yee said.
Regarding the justice reforms Albania is undertaking, the senior diplomat says the result is important.
“We will not be delighted as Albania’s partner with partial implementation or lack of implementation, so we will continue to look to the government, political parties, parliament members, to keep their promises,” he added.
