Hill: It is disturbing that Serbia is addressing Russia and China for weapons and infrastructure

Christopher Hill, appointed for the post of future US ambassador to Serbia, said on Tuesday it is disturbing that Serbia is heading for arms to Russia and China. He also said he would help Serbia resist malicious influences, including from Russia and China.

The “is particularly disturbing to see Serbia, for example, seeking to make military purchases necessary as they are trying to have first-class armies but it is disturbing that they are addressing Russia. And it is also disturbing to see that they are looking to China for some of their infrastructure needs”, he said.

But Mr. Hill said it's not enough just to say that it's problematic to accept Chinese and Russian offers.

“We should be prepared to show them (Serbia) that we offer a better model, we offer better alternatives to them”, he said, adding that he intends to do so as ambassador if confirmed.

Christopher Hill, a longtime diplomat with regard to the Balkans

United States President Joe Biden named diplomat Hill for ambassador post in Serbia in October and

Christopher R. Hill, there's a career foreign service diplomat. Recently, he was a professor at Columbia University School of International and Public Relations.

Before withdrawing from foreign service in 2010, Mr. Hill served as ambassador of the United States to Iraq, Korea, Poland, and Macedonia as Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific, and as head of the American delegation in talks on North Korea.

Ambassador Hill was the first diplomatic representative of the United States in Albania, after 45 years of isolation. In October 2016, former Albanian President Bujar Nishani honoured Mr. Hill with the title “Gen Kastriot é Skenderbeu”, on the 25th anniversary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Albania.

In the 1990s, he was a member of the negotiating team that drafted the Dayton Agreement in 1995, which ended the war in Bosnia.

During the war period in Kosovo, Mr. Hill served as the United States special envoy to Kosovo, until the Ramboullet conference, which opened the way for NATO intervention that ended the war in Kosovo.

In June 2013, he and the Austrian diplomat, Wolfgang Petrisch, were honoured with the doctor's title “causa” from Pristina University, “for their role in bringing peace and freedom to the state of Kosovo”.

Mr. Hill, experienced in the Balkan region, speaks Serbian, Polish, Macedonian and French as well.

If confirmed, he will replace Ambassador Anthony Godfrey in Belgrade. /Vosa/