[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 147 (Tuesday, November 29, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: November 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                CLOSER UNITED STATES-UKRAINIAN RELATIONS

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 29, 1994

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, with the conclusion of last week's state 
visit by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, I am pleased to see some 
very significant improvements in our country's relations with the newly 
independent state of Ukraine.
  First of all, the administration arranged a state visit for the 
President of Ukraine, the same honor accorded recently to Russian 
President Boris Yeltsin. The move to raise Mr. Kuchma's visit from the 
status of an official visit to that of a state visit was very important 
to the Ukrainian people. Too often it seems that we here in Washington 
have overlooked the fact that Ukraine is a major successor state to the 
former Soviet Union. While Russia is certainly the largest such 
successor state, Ukraine, with a population and territory often 
compared to that of France, deserves and requires our attention as 
well.
  I believe that hosting this state visit for President Kuchma has sent 
a strong signal to the Ukrainian people that their nation's important 
role in Europe is recognized here in Washington.
  Mr. Speaker, I also want to commend President Kuchma and the 
Ukrainian Parliament for making some difficult but vital decisions 
recently. First, the Parliament has now agreed to allow President 
Kuchma's government to proceed with badly-needed economic reforms. 
Second, the Parliament also recently agreed with President Kuchma that 
Ukraine should fully and finally relinquish its considerable arsenal of 
soviet-era nuclear weapons and ratify the Nuclear Non-Proliferation 
Treaty.
  These important and welcome actions by the Ukrainian Government 
should now clear the way for a much-improved relationship both between 
Ukraine and the United States between Ukraine and the nations of 
Western Europe. Frankly, in pursuing economic reforms, Ukraine has many 
more extremely difficult steps to take and it will need support from 
all of those countries. I was pleased to see that President Clinton has 
now moved to allocate additional assistance for Ukraine from funds 
already appropriated under the FREEDOM Support Act aid program. It is 
important, however, for the other members of the G-7 group of countries 
and the international financial institutions to move now to meet the 
commitments made to Ukraine at the Naples G-7 Summit in July. The G-7 
package of $4.1 billion in loans and grants that was then promised to 
Ukraine once it began real economic reforms will be badly needed.
  Mr. Speaker, as an American of the Jewish faith, let me also take 
just a moment to thank President Kuchma for taking time during his 
visit to the United States to visit the Holocaust Museum in Washington 
and to meet with Jewish communities in both Washington and New York 
City. His assurances that his government will combat anti-semitism in 
Ukraine mean a great deal to those who survived the Nazi-inspired 
atrocities carried out in Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe in 
World War II. I sincerely hope that Ukraine will indeed build on the 
positive steps it has already taken, such as the return of synagogues 
to their congregations and the encouragement of cultural and 
educational rights for the Jewish minority and other minorities in 
Ukraine.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, let me take this occasion to call on President 
Yeltsin and the Government of the Russian Federation to move to 
finalize a bilateral treaty with Ukraine that will explicitly recognize 
that new state's territorial integrity and sovereignty. It is time for 
Russia, Ukraine and the other states of Eastern Europe and Central Asia 
to move forward. There is no need for any one of these nations to 
dominate its neighbors. There is instead an urgent need for them to 
work together to overcome the terrific economic and political 
challenges they face. Now that the United States-Ukrainian relationship 
is moving forward, I hope that the United States--along with Germany 
and the other nations of Western Europe--will continue to provide 
diplomatic support for an improved relationship between Russian and 
Ukraine, which may prove vital to the future peace and stability of all 
of Europe.

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