Yushchenko Speaks Before Congress

Thursday, April 7, 2005 at 12:30AM
Dan McMinn in 05) Foreign Policy - US

I found this good summary of Yushchenko's speech before Congress in the Ukraine Daily Report. For those who haven't heard me talk about them before, UDR is a e-newspaper that comes out Mon-Fri. I worked for them for about six months a year and a half ago, and still happily support what they're doing. I would suggest checking out their archives for examples (though you'll have to look back earlier than Sep 2004, they have not finished bringing them up-to-date)

YUSHCHENKO SPEAKS BEFORE US CONGRESS ABOUT ‘8 STEPS’

President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko delivered a speech in the Senate of the United States. He noted that Ukraine’s entering the EU is “not a complication but a new opportunity for civilization.” He said it is natural that he speaks about these things in the US because Washington “has always cared about issues of freedom and democracy in the world”. Yushchenko said that it is a time of concrete steps and mentioned eight steps which Ukraine is waiting for from the US.

The first step included canceling the Jackson-Vanik amendment. The next step, according to Yushchenko, is canceling limitations for Ukrainian goods. He noted that Ukraine has opened its markets for other countries. Other steps include favoring Ukraine’s joining the World Trade Organization before November of this year, the US help in constructing a new covering for the Chornobyl sarcophagus. Yushchenko asked as a favor that every year 2,000 Ukrainian students study in the US according to special programs. He mentioned that Ukraine has now cancelled the visa regime for US citizens and asked the US to make a step towards Ukrainian students, businessmen and politicians. Among other things, he asked the US to favor Ukraine’s entering the European Union and NATO.

In his turn Yushchenko promised to create a favorable climate for American investors and support joint strategic interests of Ukraine and the US, which are in support of freedom and democracy in the whole world. He also said Ukraine “is a reliable partner of the US in fight against terrorism”. He promised to fight against racism, discrimination and slavery. Yushchenko also said that the new administration will not allow administrative pressure in the 2006 parliamentary elections. He promised that people guilty in the death of Heorhiy Gongadze will be responsible before a court of law. “We are building an open economy that inspires innovation, approves initiative, and provides high social standards,” he said.

“My goal is to place Ukraine in the line of prospering democracies. My vision of the future is Ukraine in an united Europe,” said the Ukrainian President.

[Washington, April 6, Source: Ukrayinska Pravda]

You can find more discussion of Yushchenko's speech in this CNN article or in this Wpost article.

My commentary:

1. More good diplomacy: though his justification was a bit of a stretch, Yushchenko continues to spend his time in the US talking about Europe. This is great because Europe is much more important to Ukraine's long-term economic interests, simply because it's a lot closer. Combine that with the lingering suspicion of the US in Ukraine and you have a situation in which Yushchenko doesn't want to look too friendly. So he cuts off potential accusations that he is too cozy with the US by spending much of his time talking about Europe. Great.
2. I don't know what he means by saying Ukraine has just cancelled visas for US citizens. As I have just looked on the Ukrainian Embassy site, it appears that US citizens are still required to have visas to enter Ukraine. I also have not read about any cancellation of visas except for the temporary cancellation of visas for citizens of EU member states for the duration of Eurovision.
3. It's good that he's still talking about Gongadze, but the case is still grinding along in its bizarre and perplexing way. For those who don't know,Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky has stated that he now has the Melnychenko tapes, on which a lot of incriminating material is supposed to be, and he and everyone else seems to be throwing accusations around. Omelchenko accused Kuchma of being a major player, and accused Yushchenko of giving him immunity from prosecution. Melnychenko accused Berezovsky of illegal activity and called for help from the SBU, Berezovsky accused Melnychenko of conspiring with the Russian FSB... what a mess. I'm going to make a note of this in Words and Deeds. I already gave Yushchenko a negative for breaking his promise to give us some resolution by March 25. I really hope he devotes a lot of attention to the case immediately upon returning.
   

Article originally appeared on Orange Ukraine (http://orangeukraine.squarespace.com/).