US and Ukraine
July 21, 2009
The American vice-president's trip, which also includes Georgia, is meant to assure the two countries that the US is not turning its back on them, despite a recent attempt at a rapprochement - or a "reset," as Barack Obama put it - between Washington and Moscow.
In Ukraine on Tuesday, Biden told Ukrainian President Viktor Yushenko that resetting relations with Russia would not come at Kiev's expense. Nor, he added, should Ukraine be dictated to by foreign powers - namely, the one to the east.
"We do not recognize … anyone else's right to dictate to you or any other country what alliance you will seek to belong to or what bilateral relationships you have," he said at a joint press conference after the bilateral talks.
Yushenko said US-Ukrainian relations had to be developed in a "constructive way."
NATO question
Yushenko has tried to steer his country of 48 million people in a westerly direction ever since coming to power after the "Orange Revolution" of 2004. Moscow looked on with distrust on developments there, since it considers Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, to be in its own sphere of influence. Yushenko's push for NATO membership has especially irritated the Kremlin.
But Biden emphasized that the US believes Ukraine should be able to decide for itself where it belongs. While he avoided using the acronym NATO, he made it clear what he was referring to.
"If you choose to be part of the Euro-Atlantic integration, which I believe you have, then we strongly support that," the US vice-president told journalists.
"We do not recognize - and I want to reiterate it - any 'spheres of influence'," he said.
Referring to Washington's plan to "reset" ties with Russia, Biden said it would not come at Ukraine's expense. "To the contrary, I believe it can actually benefit Ukraine," he added.
Biden must try to assuage Ukraine by supporting its pro-Western path while not going too far and angering the Kremlin, which would like Kiev to look to it for guidance, not Washington.
Onward to Georgia
Biden was due to meet Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and other Ukrainian politicians later Tuesday before traveling Wednesday to another ex-Soviet republic, Georgia, whose pro-Western policies have riled the Kremlin.
Georgia engaged Russia in a disastrous war last August that cost the country strips of its land and took relations with Moscow to an all-time low.
Biden is scheduled to have dinner with President Mikhail Saakashvili late Wednesday before holding formal talks with him and delivering a keynote address to parliament on Thursday.
Georgia, which straddles a mountainous strip separating the Black Sea and Caspian Sea basins, is eyed by the world's big powers as an important new corridor for energy shipments.
jam/AFP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Susan Houlton