Remarks by U.S. Senators Richard G. Lugar and Barack Obama
Press Conference, U.S. Embassy, Kyiv
August 29, 2005
On Monday, August 29, 2005, Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Senator Barack Obama), addressed domestic and international press at the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine. Senators Lugar and Obama were in Kyiv to meet with senior Ukrainian officials and discuss the U.S.-Ukraine relationship. Senators Lugar and Obama opened the press conference with prepared statements, and then responded to questions from journalists.
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SENATOR LUGAR: Thank you all for coming today. I will make a short statement, and Senator Barack Obama will make a short statement and then we’d be pleased to respond to your questions. As a part of the work that Ukraine and the United States have done over several years in cooperative threat reduction, we have been discussing with the Ukrainian Department of Health and the Ukrainian Department of Defense an agreement on health. I’m pleased to announce that today, representatives of the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and the U.S. Department of Defense signed an agreement. The agreement has great benefits for the citizens of both countries. It will be provide for an upgrading [security for] pathogens currently stored at various health laboratories throughout Ukraine. It will significantly reduce the time required to accurately diagnose disease outbreaks in Ukraine and assess whether they are natural or the cause of a terrorist act. Authorities in arms control throughout the world have pointed out, accurately, that we have taken steps as nations to try to contain nuclear disasters, chemical disasters, but clearly the amount of attention given to health pathogens has been deficient. We are grateful for this new opportunity to work with the citizens of Ukraine, and we appreciate very much the thoughtfulness of this agreement today. I’d like to yield to my distinguished Senate colleague, Senator Obama.
SENATOR OBAMA: Thank you very much. First of all, I’d like to say how much I’m enjoying my first visit to Ukraine. I’m grateful to whoever arranged for the beautiful weather. I want to stress a very important aspect of what the agreement that has been signed today accomplishes. It improves public health cooperation between the United States and Ukraine. Senator Lugar and I have been working in the United States on public health and infectious disease issues since I came to the Senate. One example of this is our joint work on the issue of the avian flu, a disease which threatens, potentially, to kill millions, and has been spreading through Southeast Asia and has now reached Russia and parts of the former Soviet Union.
This agreement will help Ukraine improve its capacity to diagnose, detect, and respond to public health threats by providing Ukraine with more modern central reference libraries and a network of regional epidemiological monitoring stations, as well as enhancing cooperation between our two nations. So when it comes to issues of security against terrorist threats, as well as security against infectious diseases, these problems know no borders, and it’s appropriate that we have such a wonderful agreement that’s been signed today that emphasizes the interdependence between our two nations.
SENATOR LUGAR: We’d be pleased to respond to your questions.
QUESTION: The signing of the agreement is only part of the way. The important thing is how it is going to be implemented. There was a bad tradition in Ukraine when implementation was a very weak spot under previous regimes. You came here for the first time since the historic events of late 2004 and early 2005. What is your subjective impression? Has anything changed in Ukraine? What has changed in Ukraine? And are the new authorities prepared to implement what they sign?
SENATOR LUGAR: The authorities with whom we visited today, at the laboratory we visited, are fully prepared to implement the agreement. Specifically, we talked about security for the building, for the individual rooms, and the areas in which pathogens are located. American money, through the Cooperative Threat Reduction program, will be coming to Ukraine to pay for this. The Minister of Health and other officials in that Ministry, plus those who have been working actively in Ukraine for several years, were present, and we walked from room to room. Let me respond directly to a part of your question. There was a change of government in Ukraine after the elections last year. I had hoped that the agreement might have been signed at this time last year, when I visited the laboratories. That was not possible then. It is possible now, and I congratulate the government of Ukraine.
QUESTION: Senators, your itinerary suggests that you will visit a city in Eastern Ukraine. Which city are you going to visit, and how will this contribute to the program of reducing conventional weapons, which you together have worked on for some time.
SENATOR LUGAR: We will visit the Donetsk region. We visited today with the President, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of the Rada, about legislation that the Rada might pass to exempt monies coming from the United States from taxes and duties, if they are to be used to help destroy these dangerous conventional weapons. We discussed some of those weapons, including MANPAD [man portable air defense systems] missiles and highly dangerous explosives. In fact, huge stockpiles of weapons left over from previous times in Ukraine are a danger to the people of this country, as well as the possibility of proliferation to people of other countries. Therefore, the Congress of the Untied States has appropriated monies to work, once again, in cooperative threat reduction with authorities in Ukraine for the destruction of these stockpiles. Our itinerary tomorrow may fulfill at least part of our obligation to inspect certain situations and to report to our colleagues.
QUESTION: You mentioned earlier this morning that you were preparing to introduce a bill to that would exempt Ukraine from the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. When exactly are you going to introduce it and what are the chances of the Senate actually passing it? And the second question is, so far as you know, what are the chances of Ukraine and the U.S. reaching agreement on WTO?
SENATOR LUGAR: I have offered legislation this year, and before, for repeal of Jackson-Vanik as it pertains to Ukraine. On this occasion, we are as far along as agreement in the Senate, and there are still, at least, some objectors in the House of Representatives. I pledged to President Yushchenko that we would work especially diligently to try to convince the doubters and to pass the bill. It’s very important. On the WTO issues, Speaker Lytvyn mentioned that he understands the priority of passing various bills in the Rada that would be required if Ukraine were to come into accession in 2005, and he sees the strong desirability of 2005. Some of those bills pertain to agreements with the United States, or requirements of the United States, but many pertain to requirements of many nations that are involved with the WTO. The United States strongly supports Ukraine’s accession to WTO, and we have told the President, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker, of our support for that position.
SENATOR OBAMA: I would just add a couple of things. Number one, Senator Lugar has been very diligent on this issue in the Senate, and I think that there’s strong bipartisan support with respect to Jackson-Vanik in the Senate. I think that we have to persuade some folks in the House, and I think that the White House potentially could be helpful on that front. The other point I want to emphasize is that Jackson-Vanik, WTO – these are all part of a process that I think the United States Congress strongly supports, and that is modernizing and streamlining the Ukrainian economy. And I think, based on our conversations with the President, Prime Minister, the Speaker, and others, I think that commitment exists to enhance transparency and predictability in the economy. Those are oftentimes the issues that are of concern on the international trade front, and it strikes me that the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people are making tremendous progress on that front.
QUESTION: Senator Lugar, has the issue of converting solid missile fuel in Pavlograd been discussed during this visit, because this is one of the parts of the obligations of the United States in this respect.
SENATOR LUGAR: Yes, the issue has been discussed on this visit, and, as I’ve pointed out to President Yushchenko, on each visit that I’ve had for several years. Destruction of the solid fuel from the missiles is very important to the United States and to Ukraine. The method of destruction that Ukraine wishes to employ, the United States has felt, is potentially dangerous to the people of Ukraine and, secondly, an extremely expensive method. The United States has proposed two other methods, both of which have been rejected by Ukraine. I was encourage that, even as Senator Obama and I were visiting with President Yushchenko, experts from the United States and Ukraine were working on what I would hope would be still another method of destruction. My prayer is that their negotiations will be successful, and that we will find a method that will find approval, both in Ukraine and in the United States, as promptly as possible.
QUESTION: My first question concerns the biological threat reduction agreement. When does the implementation of this agreement start, what term does it cover, and how much financial assistance might be forthcoming to implement this agreement. My second question is about the NATO membership plan. There is a feeling that Ukraine might be offered a NATO membership action plan next year. What is the attitude in the United States political class towards such a possibility?
SENATOR LUGAR: The biological agreement will commence with the signing today, and the arrangements for the first expenditures will be discussed promptly by Ukrainian and U.S. officials. Cooperative threat reduction programs, of which this is a part, are a part of annual appropriations by the Congress of the United States. We have had such appropriations since the beginning of the Nunn-Lugar Act in 1991. I cannot estimate the amount of money that will be spent; that will depend on the requirements that are found here in Ukraine, and in successful passage of the legislation each year. Nevertheless, I am optimistic about the legislation based on the cooperation we have had with Ukraine in the destruction of nuclear warheads, missiles, MANPADS – all the other ways we have worked during the past decade.
We discussed the issue of NATO with Ministry of Defense authorities and suggested the importance of the debate in Ukraine – that is, the plans that occur for preparation in Ukraine, the expression of those plans to the people of Ukraine – this would be a very important factor in terms of United States popular opinion. The majority of Senators start with a feeling of strong support for Ukraine in NATO, but this will be a debate, as each of the NATO expansion debates, based upon the merits of what each nation may contribute to the alliance. It’s upon the Ministry of Defense to make that case clearly to the people of this country as well as to the United States.
QUESTION: In your discussions in both Russia and Ukraine, did the issue of Belarus come up? And as senior legislators in the United States, would you say that American policy toward Belarus has been appropriate? Would you propose any changes, perhaps a toughening of the U.S. position?
SENATOR LUGAR: Belarus was not discussed today. With regard to future policy, we look forward to opportunities to work with the people of Belarus to build democratic institutions. We are always patient and optimistic.
Thank you very much.