BRAMA, June 29, 2000, 11:00pm EST

Pascual Nomination Moves Forward -- US Ambassador to Ukraine
-- Morgan Williams

Washington, D.C. - The nomination of Carlos Pascual to be U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine took a major step forward today when the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved the nomination. President Clinton submitted the nomination to the U.S. Senate in March of the year. The Foreign Relations Committee will now send Mr. Pascual's name to the floor of the U.S. Senate for final confirmation.

The action approving Mr. Pascual came today in a meeting of the U. S. Foreign Relations Committee, which is chaired by Senator Jesse Helms. Mr. Pascual was one of thirteen ambassador nominations to be approved by the Committe today.

It is expected, according to reliable sources, that Mr. Pascual will be approved by the full U. S. Senate in the near future and will assume the Ambassadorship in Ukraine in August.

BACKGROUND NOTE----------President Clinton announced his intent to nominate Carlos Pascual to be U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine on March 1st of this year. Mr. Pascual is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, class of minister counselor. He was appointed as special assistant to the President and senior director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian affairs at the National Security Council (NSC) in July, 1998.

He has been responsible for advancing U.S. security interests with Russia, supporting Ukraine's transition to a market democracy and its integration with Europe, and promoting stability and security in the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Mr. Pascual joined the NSC in June 1995 as director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs; he was responsible for coordinating economic policy affecting the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Prior to joining the NSC, Mr. Pascual was deputy assistant administrator for Europe and the new independent states at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He served with USAID in Sudan, South Africa and Mozambique.

Mr. Pascual received a B.A. from Stanford University and a master's degress in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. He was born in Havana, Cuba. (Source: Office of Information Programs, U.S. Department of State)

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