Washington rarely wastes time on political formalities. When senior officials at the White House and State Department open their doors, it is because they see strategic value—not ceremony. That is why Bedri Hamza’s meetings in the capital last week matter. By sitting down with Charles McLaughlin, the President’s lead advisor for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, and Mark Fleming at the State Department, Hamza entered the small circle of leaders Washington evaluates seriously. In a city where access is the purest measure of relevance, this visit spoke louder than any statement could.
By Mark Gojcaj - 1 December 2025
For Washington, access is the most honest form of diplomacy. It tells you who is being tested, who is being groomed, and who is being quietly elevated. Last week, Bedri Hamza received that kind of access.
While in Washington, Hamza met with two officials whose portfolios define the United States’ strategic posture toward Europe: Charles McLaughlin, Special Assistant to President Trump and Senior Director for Europe and Russia at the National Security Council, and Mark Fleming, Director for Central and Western Europe at the State Department.
In the language of the capital, this is the combination that matters: NSC for strategy, State for execution. And in the architecture of the Trump foreign-policy system, the Senior Director for Europe is one of the most consequential national security posts in the building. McLaughlin is the official responsible for shaping the President’s daily briefings on NATO, Russia, and the Western Balkans. He filters the intelligence, the cables, and the proposals. He sets the tone.
No senior NSC official engages unless there is a serious policy reason to do so. These meetings were not symbolic gestures. They were Washington’s way of taking a candidate’s temperature — and taking his measure.
Hamza’s message was straightforward and, by Washington standards, disciplined: Kosovo needs to re-anchor itself in the transatlantic framework, rebuild trust, and re-engage on energy, economic growth, and security cooperation. This is the vocabulary the U.S. foreign-policy system understands: interests, stability, and predictability.
For a region too often marked by ideological theatrics, the meetings felt unusually grounded. McLaughlin, a veteran of the Trump NSC and a retired Special Forces Colonel, represents a worldview built on hard power, economic leverage, and tightened alliances. Fleming, at State, is the career official responsible for translating strategy into diplomacy. When both engage, it signals that the administration — current or incoming — is evaluating the viability of a relationship.
And this is exactly what happened.
Washington does not make endorsements. What it does is open doors selectively and observe how leaders carry themselves once inside. It measures tone. It measures seriousness. It measures whether someone understands how American power works and how alliances are maintained.
Hamza walked into a room that many leaders in the region struggle to enter, and he spoke the language that Washington respects: alignment, clarity, and partnership. That is why these meetings matter more than the photographs or the press releases. They represent something harder to obtain and impossible to fake — strategic consideration.
In the Beltway, that is the currency that counts.
