Gryshchenko bids farewell to D.C. after appointment as foreign minister (09/14/03)

Gryshchenko bids farewell to D.C. after appointment as foreign minister

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, who has served as Ukraine's ambassador here for almost four years, bid farewell to his country's many friends in the U.S. capital on September 4, one day after President Leonid Kuchma announced that he would replace Anatolii Zlenko as minister of foreign affairs.

Welcoming an overflow gathering of guests at the Ukrainian Embassy's independence day reception, Mr. Gryshchenko thanked the attending U.S. officials, foreign diplomats and members of the Ukrainian American and Jewish communities for their help in building a healthy U.S.-Ukraine relationship.

"I would like today simply to express my deeply held gratitude for the assistance, for the understanding, for the ability to preserve our friendship in very difficult times, to be able to see through the times of challenge into the future," the new foreign affairs minister said.

"Ukraine is a true friend and partner of the United States," he stressed.

Mr. Gryshchenko expressed his gratitude to his colleagues from the diplomatic corps, especially from countries neighboring Ukraine, who helped him through times of challenge while in Washington, and singled out the Ukrainian American community for "special thanks."

"Their love for Ukraine, ability to understand what is happening there, being critical but at the same time able to see the positive side, is something that I cherish the most and I will bring back home as a message to my countrymen," he said.

Among those attending the reception were three former U.S. ambassadors to Ukraine - William Miller, Steven Pifer and Carlos Pascual - as well as the new U.S. ambassador, John Herbst, who left for Kyiv last weekend.

Speaking about his relationship with America's envoys to Ukraine, Ambassador Gryshchenko said they "developed a real friendship over the years, and that friendship helped us in resolving serious issues." He assured them that as foreign affairs minister he would strive to achieve even greater cooperation with the United States.

Two of the former ambassadors, Messrs. Pifer and Pascual, now hold senior State Department positions that deal with Ukraine. Mr. Miller is a senior policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, while the first U.S. ambassador, Roman Popadiuk, who was not present at the reception, is executive director of the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation in Texas.

Mr. Gryshchenko also acknowledged the important role in U.S.-Ukrainian relations played by the Jewish community, which, he said, "was always at the center of my attention."

Following Mr. Gryshchenko's remarks, the Rev. Volodymyr Steliac, the pastor of St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Silver Spring, Md. - acting on behalf of Archbishop Antony and Metropolitan Constantine - presented him with an icon.

Earlier in the day, according to a report by the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr. Gryshchenko traveled to the State Department for a discussion with Secretary of State Colin Powell and to witness Ambassador Herbst's swearing-in ceremony. He also went to the White House for a meeting with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Mr. Gryshchenko returns to the Foreign Affairs Ministry in Kyiv, where he had served from 1995 to 1998 as vice minister for foreign affairs, working on various arms control and security issues, as well as border delimitation negotiations and Black Sea Fleet division talks with Russia. Before that, between 1992 and 1995, he held various positions in the Arms Control and Disarmament Directorate.

Born in Kyiv in 1953, Mr. Gryshchenko graduated form the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 1975 and spent his first 15 years in the Soviet diplomatic corps, serving on the staff of the United Nations Secretariat in New York and in various positions in the Soviet Foreign Ministry.

Before coming to Washington in January 2000, he served two years as ambassador to Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, and headed the Ukrainian Mission to NATO.

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