Hennadii Udovenko honored by Ukrainian American community (12/21/97)

Hennadii Udovenko honored by Ukrainian American community

by Irene Jarosewich

NEW YORK - Representatives of the Ukrainian American community gathered to express admiration and respect for Hennadii Udovenko, president of the U.N. General Assembly and Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs, at a reception held on December 6 at the Sheraton Hotel and attended by more than 250 people.

At the reception, organized jointly by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) and the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council (UACC), were representatives from leading Ukrainian American organizations, as well as members of Ukraine's diplomatic corps in the U.S., among them Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak, New York Consul General Viktor Kryzhanisky, and Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine's newly appointed permanent representative to the United Nations. Mr. Yelchenko, who arrived in New York recently with his wife, Iryna, was introduced as Ukraine's youngest diplomat.

Mr. Udovenko has had a distinguished diplomatic career, one that spans almost 40 years. Born in Kryvyi Rih in 1931, Mr. Udovenko entered the diplomatic service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in 1959, serving at U.N. posts in Geneva and New York, as ambassador in Poland and as Ukraine's minister of foreign affairs since 1994. He was elected president of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

In his remarks, Askold Lozynskyj, president of the UCCA, praised Mr. Udovenko on his strong policy stance against strengthening the CIS. Evhen Stakhiv, a member of the reception organizing committee, in introducing Mr. Udovenko, noted that much of the credit for improved relations between Poland and Ukraine must be given to Mr. Udovenko, who understood that a stable relationship between these two countries, long wary of each other, was essential to stability in Europe.

John Oleksyn, vice-president of the UACC, noted that within a few short years Ukraine has established embassies or consulates in more than 60 countries, and under the direction of Mr. Udovenko, has achieved internationally applauded foreign policy successes.

Mr. Udovenko is the 52nd president of the U.N. General Assembly, and he explained that, based on the current protocol for electing the assembly president, Ukraine can next expect to see its representative in this position no sooner than in 110 years.

Mr. Udovenko explained that besides being an honor for Ukraine the position of assembly president has allowed him to bring Ukraine to the attention of world leaders as well as to a wide range of international experts. He thanked the Ukrainian American community for its continued support, and especially acknowledged the many individuals present who have known him from his early days at the U.N. in New York more than 30 years ago.

In his remarks, Mr. Udovenko summarized key political, economic and social factors, positive and negative, that shape Ukraine's development. In the arena of foreign policy, he credited President Leonid Kuchma for recent successes, noting that many of the memoranda, treaties and agreements signed this past year were years in the making.

He noted that despite much consternation about the treaty between Ukraine and Russia, its signing was historic since Russia finally, and irrevocably, acknowledged before the world Ukraine's independence and the inviolability of its borders.

He underscored the leadership role that President Kuchma has assumed in regional foreign policy, highlighting the Baltic/Black Sea initiative and Mr. Kuchma's invitation to leaders of the region to meet in Ukraine next year.

During the evening, pianist Volodymyr Vynnytsky and soprano Lesia Hrabova performed a musical program of selections by several European composers.

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