Ukraine drew itself into the closed oval
// Viktor Yushenko offered himself to America
“USA and Ukraine entered in a new era of strategic partnership,” says a declaration which combined the summary of the results of the meeting between U.S. President George Bush and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushenko. The Ukrainian president’s five-day visit, that started Monday, has become a beginning of a new honeymoon in the American-Ukraine relationship. No president from any Eastern Europe country, excluding Boris Yeltsin, has received such support from United States. This support includes promises to provide Kiev multi-million credits, void the Jackson-Vanik Amendment and support Ukraine’s plans to join the WTO, EU and NATO.
“Long Way to the Oval Office”
A busy schedule of Yushenko’s visit in the U.S., besides negotiations and Washington meetings, including trips to Chicago and Boston, was made such way that the main events were supposed to happen in the first day of the visit. The meeting of the two presidents that was given the tone of the whole visit happened exactly on Monday. Yushenko called this meeting a result of “long way of Ukraine to the Oval Office.”
A few minutes before the presidents went out to talk to the press to underline the importance of the moment the members of the Yushenko delegation entered the hall – Alexander Zinshenko, state secretary; Boris Tarasyuk, minister of foreign affairs; Anatoly Greitsenko, minister of defense; Evgenny Chervonenko, minister of transport; and Sergei Terekhin, minister of economics—and also key members of the Bush team, Vice President Richard Cheney, State Secretary Condolezza Rice, Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Stephen Headley.
George Bush mostly answered the journalists’questions. The general idea in his answers was mostly about that Washington is ready to give Kiev the maximum of support in exchange for “widening democracy and freedom.”
The U.S. President promised to support Ukraine’s entry into the WTO, NATO and EU and promised to persuade the Congress of the necessity to void the still-active Jackson-Vanik Amendment (limitation in mutual trade approved by the U.S. Congress in 1974 as an answer to the USSR refusal to allow Jewish immigration). Besides, according to the president, he asked Congress “to give Ukraine $60 million to fight corruption.”
George Bush clearly indicated that Washington is ready to make these steps despite the fact the new Ukrainian government intends to pull out more than 1,500 Ukrainian troops from Iraq, which will possibly bring a new blow to the coalition of the willing made by the U.S. for Iraq. “He fulfills election promises and I completely understand him,” said Bush talking about his Ukrainian colleague. Yushenko and Bush had elections about the same time.
Mr. Yushenko spoke much less than the head of the White House, but his speech was well prepared and apparently he knew how to talk to Americans to be heard. “We have a very heavy heritage. Beside the corruption and poverty, half the country’s economy was in the shadow. Human rights were absent as well as freedom of the press. When journalists paid with their lives for the truth.” Yushenko painted a sad picture of his predecessor, Leonid Kuchma. In this speech he was trying show the difficult task he is facing. But he finished his speech on a high note, saying the gloomy past has to stay behind because ideals of the new Ukrainian leadership “are the same as the Western world.” Yushenko did not mention his Eastern partner and neighbor, Russia in his speech. As a result of the negotiations between Bush and Yushenko was a joint declaration that says “Today the U.S. and Ukraine have opened a new era of strategic partnership.”
New Klondike of Eastern Europe
Despite the big political endorsements toward Ukraine from high-ranking American politicians, Yushenko and his team had to realize that the main result of their U.S. visit will be judged not by political statements and declarations, but by actual results. Promises have to become a reality. But it will depend on the discussions of the economic bloc and what agreements will be reached toward that direction. For instance, anti-Americanism that Yushenko rival Viktor Yanukovich was betting on, has a great spread in Ukrainian society and because of that Yushenko will have to prove to his Ukrainian audience that there are solid advantages in a strategic partnership with the United States.
The Ukrainian minister of economics Terekhin told journalists about the results of the negotiations “that the U.S. says it will seriously help Ukraine and maybe more than it needs.” Terehkin noticed that “the negotiations about credit from the Export-Import Bank of USA to the National Bank of Ukraine are almost finished.” Answering Kommersant’s question about the amount of the credit, the minister of finance said that “Ukraine itself will decide how much money it needs.” According to Kommersant’s information, the signing of an agreement will be on Wednesday, after which there will be a reception which Yushenko will give for honored guests in his temporary residence located across from the White House. On Monday, giving a speech in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Yushenko was trying to persuade American business elite that Ukraine can become for them a new Klondike --that’s of course if business circles will open themselves to Ukraine. From his side, the Ukrainian leader promised to do everything to make it happen. He told that from now on in Ukraine there will be the “most modern market” that will be “transparent and understandable for the players.” As one of the priority tasks for the new Ukrainian government, he named “a reception within a month as status of the country with the market economy,” entry WTO at the end of November of this year and also “beginning in 2005 negotiations between EU and Ukraine to create a free trade zone.
The Ukrainian president also told about plans to finish building an oil pipeline Odessa-Brody and also creation of a natural gas consortium for building of a new gas pipeline, which will run from east to west through the Ukrainian territory. “Ukraine is interested in alternative (compared with the Russian —Kommersant) way of supplying crude oil. That’s exactly why we and our American partners reanimate an idea of the oil Odessa-Brody,” he said. Yushenko also said that Ukraine and U.S.A. are “examining now ways of joint oil refinery and pumping it to Gdansk.” And because realizations of such large-scale plans need huge investments, Yushenko offered American companies the chance to participate in new projects. He also claimed to lower the taxes and support any kind of private capital to help the audience to get rid of their doubts. “Business will not be persecuted in Ukraine. The authorities will support you and will be your main partisan,” Yushenko assured members of the American business elite.
The economy was a main subject the same day during a 90-minute meeting with vice president Cheney. According to a Kommersant source close to the White House, during the conversation both parties discussed prospects of cooperation in the energy field, the same topic that was raised in the Chamber of Commerce meeting. One of the problems that Yushenko discussed with Cheney was the creation of the natural gas consortium receiving fuel from Turkmenistan through Kazakhstan in Ukraine.
Wednesday Yushenko gave a speech in the Congress. A Kommersant source in Congress said “this speech can give a serious push to cancellation in this year of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment for Ukraine.” The cancellation of the Jackson-Vanik Amendments still remains one of the priority tasks within American-Ukrainian cooperation. A Kommersant source thinks it is quite real. In the meantime, the chances of Russia to get the same result and the same terms are appraised much lower.
In Chicago Like in the Village Square
Besides the negotiations with American political and business elite, the Yuskenko itinerary included multiple contacts with members of different levels of American society that’s supposed to fill up “new strategic partnership” between U.S. and Kiev with real content. The visit to Chicago got extra meaning for Yushenko because it is the native city of his wife, Ekaterina, whom Yushenko himself called “daughter of Chicago.” (The spouse of the Ukrainian president was born and grew up in the US and only on March 21 changed her American citizen for Ukrainian.)
In Chicago 1,500 members of the Ukrainian Diaspora wearing orange greeted the Yushenkos with happy screams. Viktor and Ekaterina Yushenko felt themselves among “their own” like it was not in Chicago, but in Kiev or in a small Ukrainian village square. It’s interested that 99.6 percent from 4,500 American-Ukrainian who voted in the Ukrainian election voted for Yushenko.
“New Ukraine owes its existence to your contribution. As before, we still need your support. We call you to come back to Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president said to Chicago Ukrainians. Yushenko also asked the Ukrainians to invest money in their historical motherland.
The next stop after Chicago will be Boston. Right from the Boston Airport, the Ukrainian president will visit the Shriners’ Children’s Clinic where there is 5-year-old Nastya Ovchar being treated for burns after saving her 2-year-old sister from a fire. After that Yushenko will visit the JFK Library where he will meet with Kennedy family members. There he will also get an award for personal bravery from the library’s foundation. At first, Yushenko planned to stay in the U.S. until April 7, but because of the death of the pope, the schedule and terms of his visit were changed. George Bush and Viktor Yushenko will go the Vatican the pope’s funeral. The press service of the Ukrainian president decided to attend the funeral as soon as he found out the pope died. Moreover, Yushenko, following the Bush example, announced a national day of mourning in the Ukraine on Friday.
Dmitry Sidorov, Washington, and Andrei Chernikov, Kiev
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 06, 2005
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