BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, who played an important role in ending wars in the Balkans in the 1990s, has arrived for talks in Serbia amid simmering tensions in the still volatile European region.

Biden, on his last trip to the Balkans as a senior American official, will travel later Tuesday to Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Biden's visit underscores Washington's desire to maintain influence in the Balkans as Moscow works to keep Serbia — one of Russia's last remaining allies in the region — within its fold.

The trip also highlights Washington's worry about the slow pace of regional reconciliation 17 years after a U.S.-led NATO air war stopped a Serbian crackdown against Kosovo Albanian separatists and 21 years after a Bosnia peace deal was signed.