Remarks by
Viktor Yushchenko, President of Ukraine
and
William Jefferson Clinton, Former President of the United States
"House with Chimeras"
Kyiv
November 27, 2005
Kyiv, Ukraine
(BEGIN TEXT)
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO (delivered in Ukrainian): Dear journalists, I have the great honor and great pleasure to welcome to Ukraine President Bill Clinton, an extraordinary man, one of the world's brightest politicians, a great supporter and sympathizer of Ukraine, and a friend of mine.
I would like to single out several key positions that link together the historical and present status of bilateral relations between our countries. First of all, President Clinton is responsible for laying down the foundation of our strategic partnership. Our two countries have been working together for many years in this political status and have filled it with fairly profound content. I list these as successful policies that were attained in bilateral relations. Today we talked with Mr. President about the content of this relationship, about energy projects, health projects, other economic projects, technical assistance projects, including in the system of government, since those are issues very important for Ukraine.
I am pleased to see that today President Clinton has won such great recognition worldwide for his initiatives to combat poverty, to combat racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination, to promote economic development, and of course to combat the HIV/AIDS disease.
I would like to stress that the signing of the Memorandum today allowed Ukraine to become a priority country in the Clinton Foundation projects. This is an appropriate level for this project because, when we talk about treating an HIV/AIDS patient in Ukraine, it costs $2500 to $5,000 dollars, and we can say that the vast majority of the people who have this problem cannot afford this treatment. So lowering the cost of treatment 7-8 times from the level that we have now is a tremendous contribution to dealing with this disease. I consider this one of those unique projects that will allow the Ukrainian government to have a radical response in the next years to the challenge of what amounts to an epidemic threshold of HIV/AIDS.
Secondly, as we have discussions in this context, we should remember all the time that the issue of HIV/AIDS and the problem of tuberculosis go together. If we combine those two challenges than we have about one million Ukrainian citizens who are affected. This is a global problem for Ukraine, and this is why I wish that together with President Clinton, his Foundation, the Ministry of Health, the Government of Ukraine, civic and private initiatives around this project we are able in the nearest future to form a very serious response to this grave challenge to Ukraine and its citizens. I believe in the prospects of this project, I believe in its tremendous effectiveness and I would like to thank Mr. President once again for his visit, for the support of the national HIV/AIDS program, and for his efforts in setting up our bilateral relationship - deep gratitude, thank you.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: First of all, thank you, Mr. President, for your kind remarks. I am delighted to be back in Ukraine. It is a place that I care a great deal about both for personal reasons and as a citizen of the world. I think the future of your country will have a big impact on people far beyond its borders.
I did try to establish a good partnership between the United States and Ukraine when I was President and I am delighted that it has continued under your leadership and that of President Bush. It pleases me greatly that our countries can maintain friendly cooperation as we change political leaderships, and I think it's important for the long run. I am very grateful.
I am also very pleased that the Foundation, which I now head was able to provide some assistance to you in terms of advice on the operations of the executive branch of government, and its relations with the other governments and with the public at large. It's one of the things that I try to do as a former head of state. I am a member of the group called the Club of Madrid and a lot of us who once headed governments try to do this sort of work, particularly in newer democracies throughout the world.
I spoke about our AIDS work earlier when we signed the Memorandum of Understanding in the presence of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, but let me just reiterate that our goal is to provide you with first-class technical support for the training and education of medical personnel and others in testing, identifying people who are HIV positive and getting them into the proper care and treatment program, and then providing you the least expensive, high-quality medicine in the world both for adults and for children. I also believe that if our experience in other countries is a guide it will increase the ability to deal with the tuberculosis problem and reduce that problem and its devastating impacts on your society and your economy.
Finally, Mr. President, let me just say that as a friend of this country and a friend of yours I have watched with great interest the events of the last year, and I can only tell you what it looks like to a total outsider.
I see a more vibrant democracy, a freedom of speech, a more aggressive free press, a freedom of political assembly, and the kind of disagreements that characterize any modern democracy. It takes a long time to build a modern economy, a modern political system and the kind of set of relationships with the rest of the world that will guarantee your children and your grandchildren the future I think you want.
And I would only say to my friends in this country that you should always be impatient in wanting to do better, but you have to be somewhat patient in knowing that not all results will come overnight. It takes time to build the kind of vibrant, progressive, forward-moving nation that you are all working to build.
So, from the outside it looks like a more progressive political system, a more progressive position on AIDS, a more progressive position on the economy, and in general it's quite hopeful for the future, and I congratulate all of you and I wish you well. I thank you again for letting me be a small part of it.
QUESTION: UNIAN wire service, questions to both Presidents. For President Clinton: can you please tell whether, as a political "Comeback Kid," you have offered President Yushchenko some advice concerning the domestic situation in Ukraine in the context of the upcoming Ukrainian elections? And for President Yushchenko: Today Yulia Tymoshenko noted that it is not expedient to join blocs before the election but rather do it after the elections when already in the parliament. So, now, how will your bloc, the bloc named after Yushchenko, relate to the Tymoshenko bloc in the elections campaign? Shall you treat it as an ally, as a rival, or go into the elections down neutral parallel courses?
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: I have to give my friend a chance to prepare. I see the answer to your question in the following plane. This is not a challenge for the Nasha Ukraina bloc or any other bloc in particular, how to put together a formula for the best success. It is a challenge for all the democratic forces in Ukraine. Today I can state only one thing: that all participants of this electoral process who belong to the bloc of the democratic forces have the full right to formulate their own concept of moving forward, including with regard to forming respective coalitions. I can speak only for the political bloc that I belonged to until recently. I am confident that this bloc, Nasha Ukraina bloc, will propose to the democratic forces of Ukraine the only truly appropriate concept. My friends, the most original model for the victory of the democratic forces in the 2006 parliamentary elections is the concept of solidarity, the concept of unity. This is truly original. Everything else, I would say, has the right to exist. I don't want to discuss that, but I call on my partners and friends for one thing - solidarity. This is the best formula of addressing the challenge that the democratic forces of Ukraine face. This is the essence; everything else is detail. Thank you.
PRESIDENT CLINTON: The short answer to your question about whether we discussed domestic politics is no. I don't think I know enough to give the President advice and it's not my business and it sounds to me from the answer he just gave he doesn't need any advice from me. We did discuss some domestic substantive policies, and we had a fascinating conversation about education and the challenge of when you transfer from a communist country to a free market country, from a one-party system to a democracy then both people in government and people in the private sector have to relate to each other in completely different ways. And the question of whether there is a way you could have educational institutions that would facilitate the training of large numbers of Ukrainians both to form new public roles and new private roles and how they relate to the government. This is a very interesting and serious challenge not simply for your country, but for many others. The President and his whole team were interested in discussing this and then that was the basic domestic policy we discussed.
QUESTION: Question to President Clinton. You said that you watched with great interest the situation in Ukraine during the past year. How would you evaluate the situation with the investment climate, to what extent has it improved, and what are the chances of the more significant flow of American capital to Ukraine in the nearest future? And a short question to President Yushchenko: Would you agree that the situation can be improved, including in the economic cooperation between Ukraine and America? And the fast resolution of the issue with the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, when will it be decided?
PRESIDENT CLINTON: First, I think, the investment climate has gotten much better. I think, you know, that it was a big story in America when you had an open bidding for the steel industry and Mr. Mittal won the bid - an Indian citizen living in the UK and the biggest producer in the world and very well known for dramatic modernization and efficiency of steel plants. Interestingly enough, another thing we discussed was whether Ukraine could increase its energy efficiency in terms of production. You know, produce more with the same amount of energy because it's a fairly low-efficiency country now. I think all of these kinds of developments are quite positive and will only make more investors from all over the world interested in the country. It's a vastly rich country in terms of natural and human resources with enormous potential for growth. So, my view is that you have improved your situation rather substantially over the last year in giving people a sense of openness, economic and political openness.
PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: I, of course, think that the appointment of the Ambassador is a key factor for organizing bilateral relations. Several candidates were looked at - many candidates, I would say frankly. About two to two and a half weeks ago the decision on the candidate was made and now the procedural arrangements are underway.
Thank you.