Turning the pages back... July 18, 1996 (07/14/02)

Turning the pages back...

July 18, 1996

Six years ago, speaking in Washington at a "town meeting" for regional news media, State Department Spokesman Nicholas Burns said the biggest mistake of both the Bush (the first one, that is) and Clinton administrations with respect to the new independent states of the former Soviet Union was in remaining Russocentric for too long to the detriment of developing important relationships with Ukraine and the other republics.

A related mistake, said Mr. Burns, was in being too slow in marshaling the resources necessary for building strong ties with the new countries of that region, reported Yaro Bihun, The Weekly's Washington correspondent.

The frank admission by Mr. Burns, a career foreign service officer who dealt with Soviet and NIS affairs for five years on the National Security Council under the Bush and Clinton administrations, came during a discussion of U.S. policy toward Russia, Ukraine and the new independent states (NIS) at a U.S. foreign policy conference for regional media. The daylong affair, which included presentations by Secretary of State Warren Christopher and other key State Department officials on various aspects of U.S. foreign policy, took place on July 18, 1996, at the State Department.

The Clinton administration has been "up front" about its initial failure, Mr. Burns said. "We have said that probably in 1993 we should have spent more time talking to the Ukrainian leadership, putting more emphasis and more money into our relationship with Ukraine," he told the gathering of journalists.

"I wish we had come to that in the Bush administration; and I wish we had come to that sooner in this administration," Mr. Burns said.

Acknowledging that U.S. relations with Russia are paramount in that region, Mr. Burns said that while Russia must remain the "No. 1 preoccupation" of the United States, "we would make a very foolish mistake indeed if we allowed ourselves to be Russocentric in how we look at our policy and our opportunities there."

"Ukraine is a pivotal state that requires an independent relationship, which I believe we have. And oddly enough - surprisingly enough after everything I've said about engaging with Russia - we are actually going to spend more money to promote economic reform in Ukraine this year than we are in Russia, because the stakes are so high," he noted.

Source: "State Department spokesman says Russocentrism was biggest mistake," by Yaro Bihun, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 28, 1996, Vol. LXIV, No. 30.

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