Gore and Kuchma to meet in Washington on December 8 (11/21/99)

Gore and Kuchma to meet in Washington on December 8

WASHINGTON - Vice-President Al Gore on November 16 announced he will meet with President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine in Washington on December 8 for a session of the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission.

The commission meeting will mark President Kuchma's first trip to Washington since his re-election as president of Ukraine earlier this month. He is expected to bring the top members of his economic and security teams.

"I am looking forward to meeting with President Kuchma and continuing the work of our commission," Vice-President Gore said. "We have worked together on many issues, including economic reform, trade, non-proliferation, and law enforcement. Now, as President Kuchma prepares to begin a new term as President, I am eager to discuss his plans to accelerate economic reform in Ukraine."

Vice-President Gore and President Kuchma established the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission in September 1996 to strengthen the partnership between the two countries. The commission is made up of committees on foreign policy, security, sustainable economic cooperation, and trade and investment, as well as working groups on energy, the environment, law enforcement, and science and technology.

The last meeting of the commission took place in July 1998 in Kyiv, where the two leaders signed a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, agreed to expand trade in textiles and extended a convention on nuclear safety, among other achievements.

Vice-President Gore also took the occasion of his visit to tour the Chornobyl nuclear power plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear accident. The vice-president later gave a speech at the Chornobyl museum on the dangers of nuclear proliferation, the importance of peace and the power of democracy.

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