By Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON, July 24 (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers is pushing to hold a meeting of up to 57 nations about European security in South Carolina rather than Serbia next year, highlighting a spat among congressional Republicans and Washington's complex relations with the Balkan country.
Republican Representative Joe Wilson will introduce a joint congressional resolution on Friday with 40 co-sponsors that calls for the 2027 annual session of the Organization for Security
and Co-operation in Europe to take place next summer in Charleston, in Wilson's home state of South Carolina, rather than in Belgrade, Serbia's capital and a venue favored by other high-profile Republicans.
Reuters reviewed a copy of the resolution in advance of its publication.
The two cities are candidates to host the annual gathering of the European, Central Asian and North American member states of the OSCE, a grouping that has focused in recent years on managing the fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
While U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the debate have made various logistical and practical arguments for their preferred venue, some of which have little to do with geopolitics, the dispute also speaks to a broader debate in Washington regarding Serbia, which has warm ties with both Moscow and the Trump administration.
Some lawmakers, dismayed by Belgrade's deep economic links with Russia, have pushed for a more confrontational stance toward Serbia, which is a significant buyer of Russian energy and has declined to join Western sanctions against the U.S. adversary.
Other lawmakers have emphasized the need for continued engagement with the Serbian government in order to bring the nation — which aspires to join the European Union — into full alignment with the West.
In an interview, Wilson, who is the co-chair of a Europe-focused quasi-congressional body known as the Helsinki Commission, emphasized that a U.S.-hosted meeting would signal America's commitment to its OSCE allies. He also criticized Serbia for its hostile stance toward Kosovo, a U.S. ally that Belgrade considers an illegitimate breakaway region.
The lawmakers co-sponsoring Wilson's resolution include William Keating, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee's Europe subcommittee, who has publicly criticized the Serbian government on various grounds.
In a statement, Keating said that the annual session should be in the U.S. "to highlight the important role the United States needs to play in multilateral institutions."
The Serbian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
GEOPOLITICS VS LOCAL POLITICS
Wilson said that among those who opposed Charleston is Republican Senator Roger Wicker, chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Wicker, Wilson said, had told him that the congressional monies needed for the Charleston meeting might not come through, a concern Wilson dismissed.
Wicker, who is himself the top senator on the Helsinki Commission, would have immense sway in determining whether an annual summit in the U.S. could go forward.
Reuters was not able to independently confirm Wicker's comments, and his office did not respond to a request for comment.
In the interview, Wilson said that South Carolina would be a good venue in part because his son, the Republican nominee for governor, would help ensure delegates were well-received. Several co-sponsors of his resolution are themselves from South Carolina.
Whether Wilson's resolution moves forward is unclear. While the resolution includes several relatively high-ranking signatories from both sides of the aisle, Congress is days away from entering into a recess that will last until September.
(Reporting by Gram Slattery; Editing by Don Durfee and Cynthia Osterman)
