20 July 2009

Biden Visits Ukraine, Georgia for Talks

Vice President Biden is greeted by Ukrainians in national costume on his arrival July 20 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — The main purpose of Vice President Biden’s trip this week to Ukraine and to Georgia is to strengthen each partnership, a vice presidential adviser says.

“Ukraine and Georgia are very different countries facing very different challenges, and also very different opportunities,” Biden’s national security adviser, Tony Blinken, said in a press conference call July 17 in Washington. “But we see some overarching themes to the trip that apply to both countries.”

The first of these themes, Blinken said, is to enhance partnerships. The United States is not seeking to build Cold War-like spheres of influence or to dominate any particular region, but to develop strong partners to meet common challenges, he said. Ukraine and Georgia have been partners for progress in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.

“We see it as being profoundly in our interest to help Ukraine and Georgia become the most effective partners possible, with transparent democratic and economic institutions, with a vibrant civil society, with modern militaries,” Blinken said.

Also, Blinken said, Ukraine and Georgia inspired the world with peaceful revolutions that remain works in progress. “In different ways, each country faces the challenge of fulfilling the promise of those revolutions,” he said.

Blinken said President Obama wants the vice president to restate in Ukraine and Georgia what Biden said in Munich earlier this year and what the president told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow two weeks ago: “Our efforts to reset relations with Russia will not come at the expense of any other country.”

“We will continue to reject the notion of spheres of influence, and we will continue to stand by the principle that sovereign democracies have the right to make their own decisions and choose their own partnerships and alliances,” he said.

Biden will talk with leaders about concrete steps being proposed by the United States that will be taken in the next few months to further that agenda, Blinken said.

Both Ukraine and Georgia have been working to become full members of NATO.

BIDEN IN KIEV

The vice president arrived late July 20 in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, and will begin meetings July 21 at the U.S. Embassy, then hold official meetings with President Viktor Yushchenko. Following a visit to the Holodomor Memorial, which is a memorial to the victims of the Ukrainian famine of 1933, he will hold meetings with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, members of the parliament and regional leaders, Blinken said.

On July 22, Biden will deliver a speech on U.S.-Ukrainian relations hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce, and will also meet with civil society leaders before going on to Georgia.

Biden will meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili in the capital, Tbilisi, Blinken said. The vice president also plans meetings with nongovernmental organizations that are working in Georgia as well as opposition leaders and members of the parliament and civil society. His visit includes a speech to the Georgian Parliament.

What foreign affairs decisions should President Obama consider? Comment on America.gov’s blog.