AMBASSADOR NULAND,S MEETING WITH SERBIAN ASSISTANT

C O N F I D E N T I A L USNATO 000670 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR, EUR/RPM, EUR/SCE, PM, IO, SR E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2016 TAGS: NATO PGOV PHUM PREL SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR NULAND,S MEETING WITH SERBIAN ASSISTANT MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS DORDEVIC Classified By: Ambassador Victoria Nuland, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) Serbian Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Branislav Dordevic, along with Serbian Ambassador Branko Milinkovic, met with Ambassador Nuland on November 7 to lobby for Serbia,s admission to Partnership for Peace (PfP) at Riga. Dordevic stressed the delicate political situation in Serbia with the adoption of the recent Constitution and upcoming elections, urging NATO to give reformers a strong and positive signal from the West on Euro-Atlantic integration in order to disarm the radicals and nationalists. While he acknowledged that Belgrade has not delivered Mladic to The Hague, he nevertheless felt that steps taken by the government on its ICTY compliance Action Plan warranted a positive announcement for PfP at Riga. He also worried that giving PfP to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina without Serbia would deepen his country's sense of isolation. ¶2. (C) Ambassador Nuland assured Dordevic that Washington is giving the Balkans region, and Serbia, in particular, a lot of attention at senior levels of the U.S. government. While we've made no decisions, no one wants an isolated, nationalist Serbia. She understood that Serbia could help its cause by taking more concrete steps to implement its ICTY action plan, setting an election date, and ensuring a successful transition toward Kosovo,s final status. NULAND