Translated material
Return to Kyiv
The US Secretary of State will visit Eastern Europe and the Caucasus
Dynamic and not staying long in her Washington office, US Secretary of State 62-year-old Hillary Clinton arrives in Kyiv today. This is the first point of her tour of Eastern Europe and Transcaucasia, designed for five days. After Ukraine, she will visit Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.This is Mrs. Clinton's fourth visit to Kyiv. She visited here twice as first lady, in 1995 and 1997, and came as a senator in 2005. Now, as head of the foreign policy department, she will have to clarify the prospects for cooperation with the administration of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whom part of the Washington elite suspects of “pro-Russian aspirations.”
Mrs. Clinton, her assistant for Eastern European and Central Asian affairs, Philip Gordon, told the press in Washington, will focus on discussing “the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine. According to him, the secretary of state “will continue the work begun at the meeting between Presidents Barack Obama and Viktor Yanukovych at the Nuclear Security Summit, at which Ukraine made the historic decision to get rid of enriched uranium.” The April decision was “an important step in our efforts to prevent nuclear terrorism around the world,” a State Department spokesman said. Economic and energy cooperation, contacts in the military sphere, and the development of democracy will also be touched upon.
In addition to Viktor Yanukovych and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Konstantin Grishchenko, Hillary Clinton will meet with former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. Among other points of the program, the Vremya Novostei correspondent at the State Department was named participation in a meeting of the commission on strategic partnership established during last year’s visit to Ukraine by the US Vice President, meetings with local media leaders and representatives of civil society, and a speech before students of the Kyiv Polytechnic University.
American supporters of developing ties with Ukraine were concerned that the United States had somewhat “neglected” this country. They now have high hopes for the Secretary of State's visit. Hillary Clinton's trip, notes political scientist Taras Kuzio, "should signal America's strong commitment to building an independent and democratic Ukraine and make clear that the United States rejects the European security order based on spheres of influence." According to VN, the American-Ukrainian Business Council, which unites more than 120 American companies, is also optimistic about Hillary Clinton’s trip. "This is an outstanding opportunity to further deepen cooperation at the highest levels between the Obama administration and the new leadership in Ukraine," said Council Chairman Morgan Williams.
After two busy working days in Kyiv, Mrs. Clinton will move to Krakow. There, together with her Polish colleague Radek Sikorski, she will take part in the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the creation of the international organization "Community of Democracies", founded by their predecessors Madeleine Albright and Bronislaw Geremek in 2000. The head of the foreign policy department will celebrate US Independence Day on July 4 in two Transcaucasian capitals - Baku and Yerevan. The visit will end on July 5 in Tbilisi. In conversations with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze, it is planned to “discuss progress in the strategic partnership,” a State Department representative told VN.