NDI and the International Republican Institute (IRI) honored Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at a reception on April 6 in Washington DC. NDI Chairman Madeleine K. Albright, former President of the Czech Republic, Václav Havel, and IRI Chairman Senator John McCain, addressed the audience of 500, which included senior officials from the U.S. government, members of Congress, representatives of the diplomatic corps, the press and members of the labor, business and foreign policy communities. NDI President Kenneth Wollack and IRI President Lorne Craner welcomed President Yushchenko on behalf of the institutes.
President Yushchenko was on his first visit to the United States since being elected on December 26. That election, a repeat of the fraudulent November 21 presidential runoff, followed a succession of historic events that played out peacefully in the streets, the parliament and the courts of Ukraine, as hundreds of thousands of citizens protested the flawed election outcome.
During his visit to the United States, President Yushchenko addressed a joint session of Congress and met with members of the Administration, lawmakers and others, and visited with Ukrainian communities in Chicago and Boston.
Click on the links below to read transcripts of prepared remarks:
Viktor Yushchenko (left) and Václav Havel at the reception.
NDI Programs in Ukraine
Kateryina Yushchenko, wife of Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, and NDI President Kenneth Wollack.
NDI has conducted programs in Ukraine aimed at strengthening democratic political parties, and parliamentary groups since 1992. Its foremost priority has been to strengthen regional and national party organizations. The Institute has also sought to transfer training capabilities to Ukrainian party leaders and help democratic parties build coalitions on the national and regional levels. In 1994, NDI began work with the Committee of Voters of Ukraine (CVU), now Ukraine's largest election monitoring and voter advocacy organization. Following the 2004 presidential elections that brought reformers into power, Ukraine faced the daunting tasks of uprooting corruption, fundamentally re-orienting policies in many areas and making hundreds of new governmental appointments. NDI has consulted with the new leaders in government and helped party leaders develop strategies and define their new roles as opposition, ruling and independent parties.
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