The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry claims that it is up to the President of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada, and not political parties leaders, to define the foreign policy of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry forwarded to UNIAN its comments concerning the statements of Party of Regions leader Victor Yanukovych voiced by him at X session of United Russia party in Moscow on November 20.
According to the comments, Victor Yanukovych, delivering a speech at the session, touched upon several issues of the Ukrainian foreign policy. On the whole, without denying the right of a lawmaker to voice his view, the Foreign Ministry points out that only the President of Ukraine and the parliament, and not political parties leaders, have a right to define foreign policy priorities of Ukraine. Ukraine builds its bilateral relations on these priorities. Besides, the priorities are based upon principals of equal and mutually beneficial collaboration.
The Foreign Ministry notes that Victor Yanukovych’s thesis about resuming the Single Economic Space sounded as a discordant note. It is known that after Ukraine kicked off talks with the European Union on developing a free trade zone, the issue of forming a Single Economic Space lost its topicality. Besides, the course towards the European integration has always been supported by the Party of Regions, the Foreign Ministry emphasized.
“We were also surprised with Victor Yanukovych’s statements about the conflict in Georgia voiced by him at the mentioned-above session. It’s hard to imagine a politician of national scales so openly associating himself with the position of the state that used disproportional force, roughly violated the international legislation, and, having recognized the independence of the South Ossetia and Abkhazia, was condemned by the international community.
Besides, the statements of the Party of Regions leader about ability of political forces to become a guarantor of stable relations between Ukraine and Russia look really naïve. It is an illusion. Only state power bodies may guarantee the development of bilateral relations”, reads the comments of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.
