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Bush rolls out red carpet for Yushchenko
US President George W. Bush pledged to help Ukraine join NATO and the World Trade Organization as he rolled out the red carpet for visiting Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
The US president downplayed Yushchenko's plan to complete the withdrawal of Ukraine's 1,600-strong force in Iraq by mid-October, which comes as other nations that backed the March 2003 invasion have also brought troops home.
"He campaigned on the idea of bringing some troops out. He's fulfilling a campaign pledge. I fully understand that," Bush said, adding that there was no doubt that the United States will fill any resulting gaps.
Bush, who frequently cites the pro-western "Orange Revolution" that swept Yushchenko to power, promised US help as Ukraine fights corruption, promotes free-market reforms and seeks acceptance in international organizations.
"It is very important, Mr President, to feel that we have partners standing by, that we're not left in solitude," Yushchenko said through an interpreter. "For Ukraine, it was a very long road to the Oval Office."
In a joint statement released later, the two leaders declared: "Today, the United States and Ukraine affirm a new era of strategic partnership between our nations and friendship between our peoples."
Bush asked the US Congress for 60 million dollars for Ukraine, and said Washington would seek an end to Soviet-era US trade restrictions while helping Kiev enact the reforms necessary to join the WTO and NATO.
"It is not a given. In other words, there are things that the Ukrainian government must do in order to satisfy the requirements to be considered for NATO, and we want to help," said the US president.
Ukraine wants to join the WTO by the end of the year, but Washington is insisting that Kiev provides additional guarantees for protection of intellectual property before it gives its backing.
In the White House's ornate East Room, Bush said he and Yushchenko "share a goal to spread freedom to other nations," citing Lebanon and Kyrgyzstan.
On Lebanon, the US president welcomed Syria's pledge to withdraw its troops in less than four weeks, but emphasized that Damascus must also pull out "security forces" and said that Lebanon's parliamentary elections must "take place on time."
"We look forward to continuing to work with our friends and allies to make sure Lebanon is truly free," said Bush.
"The world is changing, freedom is spreading. And I use the Ukraine as an example, along with Afghanistan and Iraq, about a changing world," he said.
"The Orange Revolution may have looked like it was only a part of the history of Ukraine, but the Orange Revolution represented revolutions elsewhere as well.
The US leader recently suggested that he would like to see a similar democratic uprising sweep the former Soviet republic of Belarus and its authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Yushchenko was scheduled Wednesday to address a joint session of Congress, becoming the only leader of a former Soviet republic, excluding Russia, and the first leader of Ukraine to do so.
It is an honor reserved for only the closest of US friends. Yushchenko, who is traveling with his American-born wife, was due late Monday in the midwestern city of Chicago for a lavish banquet staged by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations and the Illinois division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. |
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