Remarks by
Mr. Daniel Fried, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
for European and Eurasian Affairs
Mr. E. Anthony Wayne, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State
for Economic and Business Affairs
Mr. Peter Flory, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense
for International Security Policy
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine
Kyiv, Ukraine
January 24, 2006
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: Thank you for being here. The American delegation has come - a very strong group - from the Defense Department, State Department, and the White House, to express the support of the United States for Ukraine and for Ukraine's future as a free, sovereign, democratic country able to make its own choices and find its own place in the world.
We have finished up two days of intensive bilateral discussions with our counterparts in the Foreign Ministry. We had the honor of being received by President Yushchenko yesterday on the first anniversary of his inauguration as president. We met with Prime Minister Yekhanurov, with the speaker of the Parliament Mr. Lytvyn, the Minister of Defense, and with leaders of the opposition including Yulia Tymoshenko and Mr. Yanukovych.
We brought messages of support for Ukraine especially after the gas crisis, which was foisted upon Ukraine, and we hope that the solution will be one, which is transparent and respects market principles as well as long-term interests of Ukraine. In the course of our discussions we did bring one piece of good economic news to Ukraine, which my colleague, Assistant Secretary Wayne, will convey.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WAYNE: Yesterday the United States Trade Representative announced that we were restoring trade benefits to Ukraine that will allow Ukrainian manufactured goods to enter the United States tariff-free. This is a set of preferences called the General System of Preferences. We had suspended these preferences out of concern about the lack of protection for intellectual property and the great presence of counterfeit and pirated goods. As you may remember last August the Rada passed amendments to existing legislation to allow for better protection of intellectual property and then the government set about to very vigorously enforce and implement that legislation. And in recognition to that very effective combination of work by the legislature and the executive, we have restored these trade benefits to Ukraine and we have agreed to an ongoing process of close coordination to fight piracy and counterfeiting.
And I want to underscore that this action on the part of Ukraine's leaders is a recognition by them that Ukraine has much to gain by protecting intellectual property rights, that there are many creative artists, scientists and innovators in Ukraine, who will benefit greatly from having their creative product protected. Just add one more sentence that we, of course, discussed the range of economic issues: WTO progress, all the aspects of energy security, and other issues which are very important of course to our mutual prosperity and economic relationship.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FLORY: I'd just like to add a couple of words from the perspective of the U.S. Department of Defense, one of which is to reiterate, as Assistant Secretary Fried said earlier, the strong support of the United States Government for a strong, free, democratic, and sovereign Ukraine, one that is able to chart its own course on the world stage. We also took the opportunity in our meetings to express our appreciation to Ukraine for the many contributions that Ukraine has made and continues to make to international security in Iraq, in the Balkans, and in a number of areas. Lastly to discuss with our colleagues here and to commend our colleagues, particularly Minister Hrytsenko, on the tremendous progress Ukraine again has made and continues to make in defense reform; that is in modernizing the armed services of Ukraine and the defense organizations of Ukraine to make them more effective and modern and more capable in operating in a modern world as part of Ukraine's own security and also as a contribution to international security.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: As a final word I would like to express thanks to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and to Minister Tarasyuk for making this room available to us, and now we are happy to take questions.
QUESTION: Mr. Wayne, what do you think about the prospects for the rescinding of the Jackson-Vanik amendment?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WAYNE: Well the administration of the United States fully supports lifting the restrictions on Jackson-Vanik as they apply to Ukraine. The Senate of the United States in November passed unanimously legislation to repeal Jackson-Vanik as it applies to Ukraine. The House of Representatives still needs to take action. There are several pieces of legislation in the House of Representatives that would lift Jackson-Vanik and we are working with members of the House of Representatives and we will encourage them to take action on this. So we are very hopeful and we will continue to work hard toward this end.
QUESTION: Mr. Flory, you mentioned that Ukraine is a sovereign country that can chart its own course and in the context of the recent gas crisis Ukraine would be interested in developing energy cooperation and energy transit corridors with Iran. In the context of international security issues, do you think that this kind of cooperation is feasible and that something may happen in this area within the next ten or twenty years?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FLORY: I am going to make one comment and then ask my colleagues who handle this kind of energy security question. But I'm not sure if Ukraine is looking for reliable and consistent sources of energy that Iran is necessarily the one that I would choose, but I again ask my colleagues to step in on that.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: Well I think that's right. If I were looking for reliable, commercially based, long-term supplies of natural gas, I might not look first to Iran. There are other gas suppliers in the neighborhood. But to be clear Russia is, and will likely always be, a major gas supplier to Ukraine. The problem is the apparent use of political pressure on Ukraine and the way the deal came together with a very shady intermediary firm, RusUkrEnergo, a firm no one really understands or at least no one in the United States or Europe and few in Ukraine seem to understand, playing a role. The problem is not Russian gas, per say, the problem is the lack of transparency in the arrangements.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WAYNE: I might just add that indeed one of the issues that we have spent a good deal of time talking about is energy security more broadly, and that requires a diversification of suppliers and a diversification of sources of energy. That requires improvements in efficiency of use. It requires the increased workings of a market price mechanism, increased transparency and increased accountability. These are things that are in the interests of Ukraine, of the United States, of the European Union, and of Russia, and we have reiterated our desire to work closely with Ukraine and with our friends and partners to pursue an energy security agenda, not only in the days and weeks ahead, but in the months and years ahead.
QUESTION: When will the U.S. sign the bilateral WTO protocol?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WAYNE: Well I'm happy to note that we have made a great deal of progress in our bilateral negotiations on WTO. There are a handful of issues remaining of discussion among our negotiators. And we are hopeful that we will reach resolution on those issues shortly.
QUESTION: Shortly means? Can you give a more specific time?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY WAYNE: Not being the negotiator myself, I don't like to speak for my colleagues, but I can assure you that they have been in very regular contact on this and those exchanges continue. I might just add that in connection we are very hopeful that also work will continue in passing the necessary legislation for WTO membership by the Rada.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FRIED: Thank you very much.