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News
from and about Ukraine & Ukrainians
Ukrainian Community Press Releases |
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News
from and about Ukraine & Ukrainians
Ukrainian Community Press Releases |
Ambassador Anton Buteiko Speaks at Harvard's Kennedy School
Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States, the attorney and experienced diplomat Anton Buteiko, spoke at Harvard's Kennedy School March l0 on the contribution of Ukraine to the stability of Europe. The nation has rid itself of nuclear weapons, he said, and has become a United Nations peacekeeper, acting as liason for negotiations and offering aircraft to NATO.
"Reducing the nuclear threat to the world was our contribution to global security and showed we were mature enough to recognize our responsibility."
It was not an easy decision, according to Buteiko, to become free of the weapons. This took several years -- time which was not spent on other critical issues. As a result, "Ukraine only started emerging as a nation in 1995."
Time, he said, is the reason why Poland is in a different economic situation. "Solidarity was established in l980. That was the beginning of reforms in Poland." Buteiko, who prepared the first visit of former President Kravchuk to Poland, stressed that dramatic changes ultimately occurred between the people of the two nations and that the animosity of centuries has dissipated. "Now we are compatible and have become strategic partners with Poland."
Taking questions from the audience, he corrected at least one misapprehension: that Ukraine owes money to Russia for oil and gas. Commercial institutions in the two countries, he claimed, not the governments, have negotiated such contracts.
"I don't want to sound like a Soviet propogandist saying how everything is fine in Ukraine," he concluded, "because reforms have not satisfied us or the IMF or our allies, but it is a myth that Ukraine is behind in relation to Russia or some other countries."
Tanya Karpiak
UABA
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