Yushchenko speaks to students, faculty and VIPs at Georgetown University (04/10/05)

Yushchenko speaks to students, faculty and VIPs at Georgetown University

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Official visits by foreign heads of state to the United States have programs that include more than just meetings with government leaders and officials. They also include economic talks with business leaders, press conferences, interviews and other meetings and appearances that serve to explain the policies of their governments.

President Viktor Yushchenko's visit here was not an exception, and he got into the public diplomacy aspect of his trip towards the end of his first day here, at Georgetown University, where he gave a speech explaining what has become known worldwide as the Orange Revolution, and the reformed domestic and foreign policies his new government was now pursuing.

President Yushchenko was greeted with a standing ovation by more than 700 students, faculty and VIPs who filled Georgetown's Gaston Hall and had waited for close to an hour for his belated arrival.

Following brief welcoming remarks by University President John J. DeGioia, the guest was introduced by two Georgetown students from Ukraine - Mykola Stetsenko, a 2004 Law School graduate who now works in Kyiv and participated in the Orange Revolution, and Tetyana Gaponenko, a third-year student in Georgetown's School of Foreign Service who participated in supporting events in Washington.

President Yushchenko began his presentation by noting that Ukraine gained its independence 14 years ago, but its freedom would only come later.

He recalled the words of Pope John Paul II, who had asked God to grant peace to the Ukrainian people, who through their undying efforts had earned the right to be free and discover their true roots.

"Pope John Paul II expressed this wish four years ago in Ukraine, when a free and democratic Ukraine was still only a dream," he said.

"But the great pope, as a prophet, could see into the future," he added. And what recently transpired on Independence Square in Kyiv, he said, "has shown that this dream can come true."

"The Ukrainian example is very much needed in the modern world," he added. "The people united always win."

Ukraine's future, he said, lies in the European Union and the Euro-Atlantic community, and recent opinion polls have shown that a majority of Europeans agree with that goal. At the same time, he added, Ukraine will continue to strengthen its good relations with all of its neighbors, including Russia.

In building its new partnership with the United States, President Yushchenko said, Ukraine would like to see the removal of existing trade and other barriers, and an expanded bilateral dialogue not only on the official level but one that would include increased interaction between the peoples of the two countries.

He noted also that "the new Ukraine and the United States will inevitably become partners on the premises of their commitment to the ideas of freedom."

Following his speech, Dr. DeGioia honored President Yushchenko for his work on behalf of freedom and democracy with his university's highest award, the President's Medal. He noted that among the recipients of this award were the president of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Georgetown University, founded in 1789, is the oldest Catholic University in the United States. President Yushchenko's wife, Kateryna Chumachenko Yushchenko, was a student at its School of Foreign Service.

Later in the visit, President Yushchenko had speeches scheduled before the Council on Foreign Relations in Chicago and at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston.

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