Turning the pages back... December 28, 1999 (12/26/04)

Turning the pages back...

December 28, 1999

Five years ago, on December 28, 1999, Acting Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk said Ukraine's integration into European structures and its close cooperation with the United States and the Russian Federation would be the main directions of Kyiv's foreign policy in the year 2000.

"Our foreign policy will be focused on three main directions: integration into the European Union and development of cooperation with both the United States and Russia," Mr. Tarasyuk told journalists at a news briefing, presenting a review of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's activity in 1999 and prospects for the coming year.

Mr. Tarasyuk, whose appointment as foreign affairs minister in the new Ukrainian government headed by Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko was still unclear, said the year's results had proven that Ukrainian foreign policy was stable and effective.

"(We) have confirmed the European choice of our country," Mr. Tarasyuk said. "This path was supported by the Ukrainian people during the presidential elections when Leonid Kuchma was re-elected to a second term in the office." Integration into the European Union is the "Ukrainian strategic target," according to Mr. Tarasyuk. He said Ukraine was striving to achieve associate membership in the union and added that the recently adopted EU strategy for Ukraine was the key step toward that status.

The European Union adopted a strategy on December 10, 1999, for developing relations with Ukraine for the next four years. The strategy stopped far short of mapping out EU membership for Kyiv; it merely acknowledged Ukraine's European aspirations, welcomed its "pro-European choice" and outlined the basis for cooperation between Kyiv and the EU. European Union leaders declined to say what prospects Ukraine had of becoming part of the EU's enlargement plans, which then included the three Baltic states and seven other Eastern European countries.

Despite the EU's cautious approach, Mr. Tarasyuk said he believed Ukraine had a good chance to attain associate membership in the European Union next year.

Source : "Ukraine to focus on European Union, U.S. and Russia in 2000," by Pavel Polityuk, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 2, 2000, Vol. LXVIII, No. 1.

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