Final Press Conference with Ambassador William B. Taylor

May 21, 2009
Kyiv Ukraine

Question: What else have you accomplished besides getting a permit for the construction of the embassy? And what have you laid during the groundbreaking? Because according to the Ukrainian tradition they normally would lay a bottle or some kind of a brick.

Ambassador Taylor: My feelings as I leave, let me start with that. First of all, it has been a great honor for me to serve as the representative of the United States here in Ukraine for the last three years. Ukraine for the United States is a very important country. We think that the success of Ukraine is important not only for Ukrainians, but it's also important for other Euopeans and for the world in general. So to serve here, in this capital of this country, and I'm sure I speak for many of my colleagues, is a great honor. And we take this honor and opportunity very seriously. I also have to say that I feel some dissapointment that we haven't gotten more done over the past three years than we have. As I was preparing to come, I looked at the election calendar, and in 2006 it looked like to me that there wouldn't be an election until 2010. And I thought that the time that I was going to be here, from 2006 through 2009, would be a time for consolidation of democracy and economic development. There were democratic reforms, and economic reforms, and judicial reforms, that all needed to happen, and I thought that this three years from 2006 through 2009 would be a great time to work on those. And I had come from some exciting places, like Iraq, and Afghanistan, and Jerusalem, and I was ready for some less exciting time and more working time. Some more nuts and bolts, some more lower level but important reform work needed to be done. But of course, that was not to be. There were three prime ministers, three governments, three foreign ministers, three speakers, a snap election. So, not much reform got done. People were talking about new elections in all three years that I've been here. However, the last thing I would say about my feelings on leaving is that I'm very optimistic. I'm very sure things are going to get better. I'm sure things are going to get better economically, because they can't get much worse. Politically, things are going to get better. I think things have gotten politically better over the past couple of days. There's a new possibility of the government and the Presidential Secretariat and the President and the Rada working more closely together on some of these important issues. The other reason I'm optimistic is that Ukraine's independence is now eighteen years old, and so there's a generation of Ukrainians who turn eighteen this year, who will vote in the presidential election. And this generatoin never knew the Soviet times. And the third reason that I'm optimistic is that late last night a Ukrainian team united all Ukraine in Istanbul. This is a great day for Ukraine. Now, on your question about a time capsule or the brick or the vodka or the horilka or whatever it is, what is our plan Bill?

Bill Prior: We will do it.

Ambassador Taylor: Bill Pryor says we will follow that tradition. Thank you for pointing it out. Thank you. Yes, please.

Question (Inter TV channel): Can you comment on the scandalous dismissal of the head of the Presidential Secretariat Viktor Baloha? What was your perception of this scandalous dismissal of Baloha?

Ambassador Taylor: This is a decision for Mr. Baloha and the President. This is an internal decision by the President and his chief of staff. We will look forward to working with the next head of the Presidential Secretariat.

Question (Interfax Ukraina): Before you depart, what would you recommend and advise to Ukrainian politicians and the Ukrainian people?

Ambassador Taylor: My recommendation would be: hold on to your two greatest achievements over the past four years. The first great achievement, is the now well-established tradition of free and fair elections. Ukraine has shown the world, maybe too often, that it can conduct free and fair elections. People may take for granted free and fair elections, but they should not. I was talking to a Ukrainian this morning who remembers the election in 2004. His grandmother was visited by some people, and his grandmother was told how she should vote. That doesn't happen any more. Free and fair elections are a sign of a healthy democracy. In real democracies, when they have elections, you don't know who's going to win before the election. Not many people in the world could have predicted who would be elected President of the United States last November. And the United States, I think we would all agree, is a real democracy. Ukraine's a real democracy. You can't tell who's going to win before the election. But we shouldn't take that for granted either, because there are countries in this region where you do know who's going to win before the election. And those are not real democracies. But the second big thing that I would recommend Ukrainian people and politicians to hold on to, which is an achievement of the last four years, is a free press. Free from interference or influence from the government. And again, this should not be taken for granted. One can see in countries in this region the direct influence of the government over TV channels. But there's no influence of the national government over TV channels in Ukraine. There's influence by other actors, but not the government, and that's important. So that would be my recommendation to Ukraine's leaders: maintain those two major achievements.

Question (Channel 24): Do you know who will be your successor? Did you manage for OPIC to come back and protect US investments overseas.

Ambassador Taylor: On your first question, there has not been a decision in Washington about my successor. There has been a lot of discussion about it, and I know many of the candidates who are eager to come out here. So there is a strong competition back there to be selected to come out here, and I can understand why. Now, your second question, one of my dissapointments has been, so far, failure to bring OPIC, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, back to Ukraine. And it's not for lack of trying. There is a person standing behind you, Bill Kline, who has spent many of his waking hours, probably a majority of his waking hours on this very topic. And he has gotten us very, very close. And I still have two days to work, so I hope we can accomplish it before I leave.

Question (Ukrainian Weekly): When will we see Barack Obama's new Ukraine foreign policy?

Ambassador Taylor: You have seen Barack Obama's Ukraine foreign policy. President Obama sent Hilary Clinton's first deputy, Jim Steinberg, here a couple of weeks ago. And he came here with exactly that purpose, to describe President Obama's foreign policy toward Ukraine. And that foreign policy is very clear. It is to continue the U.S. government's policy over the past eighteen years, in particular over the past four years, to support the territrial integrity, independence, and sovereignty of Ukraine. President Obama has made some changes in his foreign policy from the previous administration, and he has maintained some continuity in other policies. Some of the things he's changed, you've seen. He's now willing to talk to the Iranians. He's made some changes in our policy and interaction with Cuba. He has made and effort to improve the tone of our dialogue with the Russians. He is excelerating the withdrawl from Iraq. He is redefining and refocusing our effort in Afghanistan. However, he is not changing his strong support for Ukraine. As Senator -- you may recall, Senator Obama, now President Obama-- visited Ukraine. And he understands the importance, the strategic importance, that I mentioned earlier of this country. He also believes that it's possible to have a dialogue with the Russians on some areas that we can agree on, perhaps arms control. But at the same time, we can have parallel conversations with the Russians about NATO expansion or about the Georgia invasion. We will disagree. We will continue to disagree with the Russians on NATO expansion and the Georgian invasion and recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. But president Obama believes that we can have those two conversations in parallel without having a contradiction between the two. Mr. Steinberg was here to explain that to Ukrainian leaders as well as to the Ukrainian people.

Question (Religion Information Agency of Ukraine): During your tour here, what is the situtation with religious freedoms in Ukraine? Has it improved? How much? What is the role of the U.S. embassy in this process here? And do you plan in the future to support projects that are directly designed for the promotion of religious freedoms in Ukraine?

Ambassador Taylor: We believe that Ukraine has, in general, a tolerant attitude toward religions. There are of course problems, and there are of course incidents of attacks on people maybe for their religion. Our embassy and other embassies, other international actors, are very concerned about freedom of religion, about tolerance to minorities, about acceptance of all peole for whatever religious or ethnic background. We spend a lot of our time monitoring closely the state of human rights in Ukraine and other countries around the world. And we put out a report every year. On specific issues, we have had some success in helping some religious congregations resovle conflicts with the local governments.

Question (Culture TV Channel): The first question, what do you think of the cultural ties between the United States and Ukraine? And do you plan any programs in education and in cultural relationships and interactions with Ukraine?

Ambassador Taylor: Some of our best programs of interaction between Americans and Ukrainians are exchanges and educational exchanges. These are opportunities for Ukrainian students and professionals to visit the United States and understand our culture and explain Ukrainian culture and history and politics to Americans. In my travels around this country, I frequently run into Ukrainains who have participated in these exchanges, and they tell me of their experiences in the United States. And they tell me how they have informed Americans about Ukraine. We intend to continue and expand those programs.

Question: You mentioned you needed a lot of signatures to get this property. Did that also entail paying a lot of bribes?

Ambassador Taylor: It did not. Ukrainians seem to know that Americans, and American businessmen as well, don't pay bribes. It makes it very easy. We just say no, but I don't even know that we were asked for any bribes. I'm sure Mr. Krivinos would agree that there were no such problems. Thank you all very much.