Clinton to visit Kyiv June 6 (04/23/00)

Clinton to visit Kyiv June 6

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The United States Embassy in Ukraine confirmed on April 18 that President Bill Clinton will travel to Kyiv on June 6 to meet with Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma.

The announcement came merely days after a flurry of speculation in the press that Mr. Clinton may take part in an international conference on trafficking in women scheduled for Kyiv in June - rumors that were denied by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright during her one-day stop in Kyiv on April 14.

During a live interview on one of Kyiv's television stations, Ms. Albright said that, even though Mr. Clinton would like to visit, he would not travel to Ukraine in the near future.

While the public affairs office of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said details of the president's visit were yet to be worked out, in Washington the White House announced that Mr. Clinton would visit the Ukrainian capital on the last leg of a journey between May 30 and June 6 that will take him to Portugal, where he will attend the United States-European Union summit meeting; Germany, where he will meet with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder; and Russia, where he will meet with President-elect Vladimir Putin.

According to the White House, which made the announcement on April 17, President Clinton is to meet with President Kuchma and other senior officials on June 6. He will return to Washington that evening.

Oleksander Martynenko, spokesman for President Kuchma, said that the invitation was extended to further strengthen the strategic partnership between the two countries and give renewed impetus to its development, while giving the U.S. president a chance to see first-hand the reforms occurring in Ukraine.

This will be the second visit by Mr. Clinton to Kyiv. His first, a state visit, occurred in May 1995. Mr. Clinton also made a brief stop at Kyiv's Boryspil Airport in January 1994, where he met with President Kravchuk to announce a trilateral agreement between Ukraine, the United States and Russia on the removal of Ukraine's nuclear warheads.

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