PM to receive U.S. State Department official

Source: B92, Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Serbian PM Ivica Dačić will on Tuesday in Belgrade meet with visiting Deputy Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Philip Reeker, the government said.

Philip Reeker (file)

According to the release, the meeting between Reeker and Dačić should begin at noon Tuesday, and a statement should be given to media when it is completed.
The U.S. embassy in Belgrade were not able to give any further details about Reeker's visit.

Reeker was in Belgrade at the beginning of July, holding a meeting with Dačić, who was the prime minister-designate at the time.

Speaking for B92, former Serbian Ambassador to Germany Ognjen Pribićević said that the visit was meant to "encourage the Belgrade-Priština talks to accelerate and bring results, and appeal on reconciliation in the region after the acquittal of Croatian generals".

This observer also noted that the trip was "a regular working visit to the region".

Tanjug news agency is quoting its sources in Washington who said that the visit was planned previously and "has nothing to do with the Hague ruling, nor is it particularly related to some news in the Belgrade-Priština talks".

On Monday, Reeker visited Montenegro, where he met with Montenegrin Foreign Minister Nebojša Kaluđerovic.

A release following the visit said that the new government of the country could count on the support of the U.S. in the process of Montenegro's accession to the European Union and NATO.

This week, Sarajevo media have said, he will visit Bosnia-Herzegovina for talks with the country's senior officials on concrete steps that should be made by Bosnia towards its membership of the EU and NATO.

The U.S. official will also travel to Brussels.