November 18, 2016

November 22, 1994

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Twenty-two years ago, on November 22, 1994, Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma made history with his arrival to the White House as the first Ukrainian head of state to be welcomed on a state visit to the U.S. capital.

From the South Lawn of the White House, U.S. President Bill Clinton hailed Mr. Kuchma as a reformer, citing Ukraine’s signing of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. In exchange, Ukraine received $900 million in aid packages (making it fourth in terms of amount of U.S. aid) in 1994-1995, as well as security assurances.

During the visit, Mr. Kuchma met privately with Mr. Clinton and Vice-President Al Gore, and a luncheon was hosted by the State Department.

The leaders of Ukraine and the U.S. signed a charter for American-Ukrainian Partnership, Friendship and Cooperation, and a Bilateral Civil Space Agreement. This was the first-ever agreement on space cooperation between the U.S. and Ukraine. A Joint Statement on Expansion of Trade and Investment was signed by Ukraine’s foreign economic relations minister and the U.S. commerce secretary.

The two leaders also discussed NATO, and Mr. Kuchma echoed Mr. Clinton’s stance that which countries join and when they are admitted to NATO is not as important as the manner in which European security is achieved. “Security on the European continent should be pursued not in a revolutionary way but in an evolutionary way. It is not who, but what – we cannot have a new Berlin Wall,” he said.

Following meetings with members of Congress, senior officials and the International Monetary Fund, Mr. Kuchma attended a state dinner hosted by President Clinton and the first lady. Among the 130 guests were Olympic figure skater Oksana Baiul, actors Jack Palance and Kathleen Turner, and singer Michael Bolton.

During the November 21-23 visit, Mr. Kuchma met with Ukrainian community leaders from the U.S., visited the Taras Shevchenko monument and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and met with business leaders at Overseas Private Investment Corp. OPIC signed two project commitments – one with FMC Corp. and  the other with Intertrade Uzviz for a hotel project in Kyiv.

On November 21, Mr. Kuchma addressed the United Nations General Assembly, and spoke about Ukraine’s voluntary relinquishment of its nuclear arsenal – the third largest in the world at the time.

Clinton administration officials stated that Ukraine’s independence and security are “a very important factor in European stability,” and stressed that the U.S. “firmly supports the borders and territorial integrity of Ukraine.”

Following the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the U.S., Canada, the U.K. (all signatories of the Budapest Memorandum that was signed on December 5, 1994), identified Russia’s involvement as a breach of its obligations to Ukraine.  This same memorandum was transmitted to the United Nations under the signature of Russia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov, among others.

Source: “Ukraine’s president arrives for state visit to U.S., U.S. promises additional $200 million in assistance,” by Khristina Lew, The Ukrainian Weekly, November 27, 1994.

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