Roundtable to focus on Ukraine and NATO (10/08/06)

Roundtable to focus on Ukraine and NATO

WASHINGTON -The seventh annual roundtable conference in the "Ukraine's Quest for Mature Nation Statehood" series will take place in Washington on October 17-18. The topic of this year's conference is "Ukraine and NATO Membership" - an issue that garnered international attention following a high-profile visit by Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych to NATO headquarters in Brussels on September 14.

The roundtable conference will bring together government and key non-government representatives from Ukraine, the United States and Ukraine's neighbors to examine the pivotal issue of Ukraine's readiness for accession to the NATO security alliance. Like previous conferences in the series, this year's event will serve as a forum for leading policy-makers and analysts to further the international dialogue on Ukraine's continuing development as a modern, democratic state with a Euro-Atlantic vocation.

Conferences in the "Ukraine's Quest for Mature Nation Statehood" series have convened annually since 2000. Previous conferences in this series evaluated Ukraine's relationship with the United States and the European Union, its transition to a market economy, and the development of stable, democratic politics.

Past speakers from the government of Ukraine have included Borys Tarasyuk, minister of foreign affairs; Oleh Rybachuk, former chief of staff under President Viktor Yushchenko; and former Prime Ministers Anatolii Kinakh and Yurii Yekhanurov.

Among the American and European participants have been Zbigniew Brzezinski, former U.S. national security adviser; Paul Wolfowitz, president of the World Bank; Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; Senator John McCain, chairman of the International Republican Institute; Paula Dobriansky, undersecretary of state for global affairs; Guenter Burghardt, former ambassador of the European Union to the United States; Geza Jeszensky, former minister of foreign affairs of Hungary; and recognized experts on regional affairs such as Anders Aslund and James Sherr.

The conference is planned and organized by a steering committee representing a wide array of governmental, non-governmental and academic organizations, including the U.S. Library of Congress, the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, the American Foreign Policy Council, the Kennan Institute, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations, the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, the International Republican Institute and the National Democratic Institute.

The steering committee is chaired by Bob Schaffer, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, and William Green Miller, former ambassador of the United States to Ukraine.

Registration information for the Roundtable VII can be found online at the Center for U.S.-Ukrainian Relations, www.cusur.org. For sponsorship information readers may contact Mykola Hryckowian, 212-473-0893 or [email protected]. For additional information contact Mark Romaniw, media coordinator, 202-412-6883, or [email protected].

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