United States presidential visits to Southeast Europe

There have been twenty-nine United States presidential visits to Southeast Europe by eight U.S. presidents. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first incumbent president to visit a Southeast European country in December 1959. The visits of Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Jimmy Carter were all to nations "behind" the Cold War's Iron Curtain. Of the thirteen sovereign states in (or partly within) the region, all but Moldova, Montenegro, and Serbia have been visited by a sitting American president (since the Breakup of Yugoslavia the early 1990s).

Table of visits

President	Dates	Country	Locations	Highlights
Dwight D. Eisenhower	December 14–15, 1959	Greece	Athens	Official Visit. Met with King Paul and Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis. Addressed the Greek Parliament.[1]
Richard Nixon	August 2–3, 1969	Romania	Bucharest	Official Visit. Met with President Nicolae Ceaușescu.[2]
	September 30 – October 2, 1970	Yugoslavia	Belgrade, Zagreb	State Visit. Met with President Josip Broz Tito.[2]
Gerald Ford	August 2–3, 1975	Romania	Bucharest, Sinaia	Official Visit. Met with President Nicolae Ceaușescu.[3]
	August 3–4, 1975	Yugoslavia	Belgrade	Official Visit. Met with President Josip Broz Tito and Prime Minister Džemal Bijedić.[3]
Jimmy Carter	June 24–25, 1980	Yugoslavia	Belgrade	Official Visit. Met with President Cvijetin Mijatović.[4]
George H. W. Bush	July 18–20, 1991	Greece	Athens, Souda Bay	Met with Prime Minister Konstantinos Mitsotakis. Addressed U.S. and Greek military personnel.[5]
	July 20–21, 1991	Turkey	Ankara, Istanbul	Met with President Turgut Ozal.[5]
Bill Clinton	January 13, 1996	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Tuzla	Met with President Alija Izetbegovic. Addressed U.S. military personnel.[6]
	January 13, 1996	Croatia	Zagreb	Met with President Franjo Tudjman.[6]
	July 11, 1997	Romania	Bucharest	Met with President Emil Constantinescu and Romanian political leaders.[6]
	December 22, 1997	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo, Tuzla	Met with the Bosnian Collective Presidency and Bosnian Serb President Biljana Plavšić. Visited U.S. military personnel.[6]
	June 21–22, 1999	Slovenia	Ljubljana	Met with President Milan Kučan, Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović.[6]
	June 22, 1999	Macedonia	Skopje	Met with President Kiro Gligorov. Addressed Kosovar refugees and NATO military personnel.[6]
	July 30, 1999	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Sarajevo	Attended Stability Pact Leaders Conference.[6]
	November 15–19, 1999	Turkey	Ankara, İzmit, Ephesus, Istanbul	State Visit. Attended Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Summit meeting.[6]
	November 19–20, 1999	Greece	Athens	State Visit. Met with Prime Minister Konstantinos Simitis.[6]
	November 21–23, 1999	Bulgaria	Sofia	Met with President Petar Stoyanov and Prime Minister Ivan Kostov.[6]
	November 23, 1999	Kosovo	Pristina, Uroševac, Camp Bondsteel	Met with Kosovar Transitional Council. Addressed the Albanian community and U.S. military personnel.[6]
George W. Bush	June 16, 2001	Slovenia	Kranj	Met with Prime Minister Janez Drnovšek and Russian President Vladimir Putin.[7]
	July 24, 2001	Kosovo	Camp Bondsteel	Addressed U.S. military personnel.[7]
	November 23, 2002	Romania	Bucharest	Met with President Ion Iliescu.[7]
	June 26–29, 2004	Turkey	Ankara, Istanbul	Met with President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Attended the NATO Summit meeting.[7]
	June 10, 2007	Albania	Tirana	Met with President Alfred Moisiu and Prime Minister Sali Berisha.[7]
	June 10–11, 2007	Bulgaria	Sofia	Met with President Georgi Parvanov and Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev.[7]
	April 2–4, 2008	Romania	Bucharest	Attended the NATO Summit Meeting.[7]
	April 4–5, 2008	Croatia	Zagreb	Met with President Stjepan Mesić.[7]
	June 9–10, 2008	Slovenia	Ljubljana	Met with President Danilo Türk and Prime Minister Janez Janša. Attended the EU-US Summit Meeting.[7]
Barack Obama	April 5–7. 2009	Turkey	Ankara, Istanbul	Met with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Delivered a speech to the Turkish Parliament.[8]
	November 14–17. 2015	Turkey	Ankara	Attended the G-20 Summit Meeting.

See also

• Balkans
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Foreign relations of the United States
• Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

References

1. "Travels of President Dwight D. Eisenhower". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
2. "Travels of President Richard M. Nixon". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
3. "Travels of President Gerald R. Ford". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
4. "Travels of President Jimmy Carter". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
5. "Travels of President George H. W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
6. "Travels of President William J. Clinton". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
7. "Travels of President George W. Bush". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
8. "Travels of President Barack Obama". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.