Ukraine president and FM leave for United States for working visit

22 September 2008

KIEV-President Viktor Yushchenko has left for the United States for a working visit. He will address a meeting of the UN General Assembly to set forth Ukraine’s stance on topical global problems of the present time, the presidential press service reports.

Yushchenko plans to hold a number of bilateral meetings with heads of other states, representatives of the Ukrainian and Jewish diasporas, business circles and members of the US Atlantic Council. On Sunday, Yushchenko also said in an interview with American newspapers that “Ukrainian-American summit talks on issues of strategic cooperation of the two countries will be held. However, now there is no such point in the visit programme.

“After the president’s visit to the United States, the Foreign Ministry will make public Ukraine’s official stance on the issue of prolongation of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with Russia,” a source in the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry told ITAR-TASS. The Russian side has already announced its decision to prolong this treaty for a new 10-year period. The first decade of the treaty expires on October 1.