U.S. Senators Lugar, Obama Praise Yushchenko’s Regime, Pledge Aid to Ukraine

MosNews [1]

August 31, 2005

Two prominent U.S. senators pledged on Monday to redouble efforts to overcome resistance in Congress and repeal a 1970s law hampering trade between the United States and former Soviet Ukraine.

Richard Lugar, Republican head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Democrat Barack Obama, discussed the 1974 Jackson-Vanick amendment during talks with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and other leaders, the Reuters news agency reports.

“I have offered legislation this year and before for a repeal of Jackson-Vanick as it pertains to Ukraine. On this occasion we are as far along as agreement in the Senate,” he told a news conference.

“There are still some objectors in the House of Representatives. I pledged to President Yushchenko that we would work especially diligently to try to convince the doubters and pass the bill. It’s very important.”

Obama said both parties supported the bill in the Senate.

“We’ve got to persuade some folks in the House,” he said. “I think the White House potentially can be helpful on that front.”

The Jackson-Vanick amendment was passed by Congress at the height of the Cold War with the aim of linking trade concessions to the Soviet Union to progress on human rights, particularly the right of Soviet Jews to emigrate.

Ukraine —- and neighboring Russia —- have long lobbied to have the legislation removed on grounds that it no longer can apply to former Soviet states. But a series of circumstances, mainly trade rows, have prevented its cancellation.

Lugar, co-sponsor of a 1990s program to oversee destruction of dangerous materials from the Soviet era, is visiting former Soviet states along with Obama to see how the plans are being implemented.

The senators, who flew to Kiev from Russia, announced the signature of an agreement providing for U.S. funds to help Ukraine deal with and destroy pathogens in its laboratories.

They praised Yushchenko’s administration, brought to power after mass “Orange Revolution” protests forced a re-run of a rigged election, for helping implement the accord.

“There was a change in government after the elections last year,” Lugar said.

“I had hoped the agreement might have been signed a year ago when I visited the laboratories. That was not possible then. It is possible now. I must congratulate the government of Ukraine."