ADDRESS by President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma to representatives of diplomatic corps.
Dear Mr. Doyen,
Dear heads of diplomatic missions,
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am glad to welcome you to the Mariinskyi Palace, at our traditional meting at the beginning of the year.
Unfortunately, today it is overshadowed by a number of sad events in the world - involving a lot of casualties: the explosion in the Moscow metro, the catastrophe in Beijing, a number of earthquakes in Indonesia.
I would like to offer sincere condolences to the Ambassadors of Russia, China and Indonesia in connection with these tragic events.
In the first place, I heartily thank you for cooperation last year. I would also like to share with you my views on socially important events, which happened over the year and plans for the nearest future.
As you know, Ukraine is demonstrating high rates of economic growth.
Our achievements made it possible for us to solve a number of internal problems and take over greater responsibility for peace and stability in the world.
Ukraine has built up its contribution to peacekeeping operations within the framework of the UNO. And by the number of peacekeeping personnel our state has come to the first place among European countries.
We sent our peacekeeping contingent to ensure peace and stability in Iraq without hesitation.
I want to emphasize: Ukraine would not have been able to help the Iraqis to restore state and public institutions if we had not learned to maintain stability at home.
In this regard I would like to dwell on a difficult matter. The more you talk about it, the more difficult it seems. And people even invent unknown terms for it.
At his time Descartes said, "Choose words well, and you will free the world of half of all the misunderstandings."
I mean the Constitutional reform issue.
In the first place, I would like to put it clear: the existing political system without doubt ensures relative stability in the state in general and in relations between the branches of power.
The coalition government supported by the majority in the Verkhovna Rada has been working for two years. Even reshuffles in the Government take place on the coalition basis only.
But it is a result of temporary and today's agreements, which depend on parliamentarians' political will only. The Parliament's responsibility for forming the Government should be clearly stipulated in the Constitution.
With every responsibility I stated the necessity to amend the Main Law right after the presidential elections - 99. It was for that purpose that the all-national referendum which was supposed to lead to the President's right to dissolve the parliament and creation of a coalition government and was initiated in 2000.
Almost all of the most important parties and blocs conducted their elections campaigns under the political reform slogan.
Finally, as you know, the current stage of the reform did not start last December, it started in August 2000 - more than 2 years before the presidential elections.
So, this extremely urgent issue has nothing to do with the forthcoming elections. And the preliminary approval of the corresponding bill by the Verkhovna Rada became an important, but not the first building brick in the Constitutional reform.
I can only regret that we failed to make the real meaning of the proposed amendments to the Ukrainian Constitution clear for such a respected international institution as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. And the co-reporters did not have enough time to investigate the issue thoroughly.
Of course, the level of democratic development in a state is determined by the place and role of the opposition in the society. So any international organization monitoring democratic processes listens to the opposition's opinions attentively.
But impartiality is also needed. The majority's opinion should also be taken into consideration! The wishes stated at the all-national discussion of the political reform should be taken into consideration.
I say nothing about the legislative aspect of the issue. Practically all the issues mentioned in the PACE's resolution have little to do with Ukraine's commitments under the Council of Europe's statute and the individual commitments taken over by our state when it was joining the organization.
Talking about consensus during the implementation of the political reform, - I want to note the following.
If I understand the essence of representative democracy correctly, full consensus is not an obligatory precondition for taking decisions - there is a norm that decisions are taken by the majority of votes. Otherwise we will have something similar to the medieval Polish sejm, in which any deputy could say "I do not allow" and block a decision the whole country needed. That is what some people propose us.
It is a pity that the PACE's unilateral support practically urged part of the opposition to irreconcilability by hastily adding fuel to the fire.
I want to stress: objectively the Constitutional reform in Ukraine has no alternative. It will be brought to a logical end without fail.
The reform takes into account the experience of modern democracy, which was confirmed by the Venice Commission. As you know, it approved of the amendments to the Constitution in general, stating at the same time some remarks. Those remarks, which have no strategic importance, were partially included in the final variant the Verkhovna Rada voted for in February 4.
How the reform will be completed is the parliaments' business only.
You know that after I withdrew my own bill from the Constitutional Court I refrained from taking part in the discussion of the reform by the Verkhovna Rada. My participation was limited to the conference held before the opening of the session.
At the same time I remain convinced: if as a result of the reform the Parliament and the Government formed by the coalition of parties get additional powers which involve greater responsibility, - our political system will meet the European standards.
The presidential elections set for autumn 2003 will put the Ukrainian society and Ukrainian political elite's political maturity to the test.
During the Summit Ukraine - the European Union held in Yalta I personally invited observers from the EU to monitor the elections and the election campaign. I hope observers from the Council of Europe, OSCE, CIS and other international organizations will join them.
There is no doubt that the character of the election campaign will depend upon the level of political culture opponents will demonstrate.
However, the authorities will do their best to guarantee equal conditions for all the contenders and transparency of the election process, including the counting of votes.
I want to sum up: there are a lot of objective facts which speak of the Ukrainian society's stable development in different spheres.
My only wish is that the attitude towards Ukraine aboard, which to a large extent is formed under your influence, could be as impartial as possible and could be based on objective facts only.
Diplomats, like businessmen, respect the language of facts. But it is really important to abide by the principle of impartiality this critical, election year.
As Goethe wrote, "It is much easier to find a mistake than the truth. Mistakes are on the surface, you can see them at once, whereas the truth is hidden in the depth, and not everyone can find it."
Dear ladies and gentlemen,
Now I would like to say a few words about the main foreign policy tasks Ukraine plans to solve this year.
We consider the completion of the negotiation process on Ukraine's integration into the World Trade Organization to be the first on the agenda from the point of view of our state interests.
In the sphere of European integration special attention in the internal sphere will be given to bringing all the spheres of public life - and in the first place, the domestic legislation - closer to the European standards.
In the external aspect our aim is to work out an Action Plan with European Union.
We are determined to maintain the existing high level of cooperation with our Central and Eastern European neighbors in the context of their integration into the EU.
Our relations with the Russian Federation are also full of events.
The Year of Russia in Ukraine finished successfully. Substantial progress has been attained in our cooperation in the trade and economic sphere.
I hope our cooperation will continue developing consistently and systematically, without any surprises, in the spheres President Putin and I outlined during our meeting in Kyiv.
I am also convinced that concrete parameters of cooperation within the framework of the Common Economic Space between Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan will be outlined this year.
Ukraine will continue giving priority attention to the implementation of its target plan with NATO.
Last year Ukraine made a breakthrough in its relations with the United States of America. A number of problem issues were settled.
There are real preconditions allowing our relations to acquire even greater positive dynamics this year.
We will continue intensive political dialog with all of our neighbors.
Ukraine will continue diversifying its political, trade and economic ties.
Special attention will be paid to the country's trade relations with the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, China in particular, Southeastern Asia, a number of Latin American countries, Brazil especially.
10 years ago Ukraine voluntarily renounced its nuclear arsenal, which was the 3rd biggest potential in the world.
It is hard to overestimate the importance of that historic decision for security on the European continent and in the world.
Still, a number of internal problems remain unsolved, although the international community pledged to help Ukraine solve them.
From the rostrum of the UNO and other respected international forums Ukraine will continue supporting the world community's efforts aimed to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction on the globe.
Dear friends,
Ukraine and the world enter a very responsible stage.
It depends on us what response we will offer to counteract today's challenges.
May the year 2004 see realization of our hopes and plans and fulfillment of preset tasks.
I wish you, your states and peoples peace, consent, well-being and prosperity.
Thank you for attention.
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