Vice President Biden Assures Ukraine of US Support

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (R) welcomes US Vice President Joe Biden during their meeting in Kiev, Ukraine, 21 July 2009.

US Vice President Joe Biden and the Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko agreed Wednesday on the creation of a strategic committee for bilateral cooperation.

During his visit to Kiev, Biden assured the Ukrainian people that the US attempts to establish closer relations with the Russian leadership in Moscow was not going to affect the Ukraine negatively, the press service of the Ukrainian President announced.

Biden reiterated the Obama Administration's commitment to strengthen ties with the Ukraine and rejected Russian claims that the former Soviet republic was part of Moscow's "sphere of influence."

The US Vice President, whose visit to the Ukraine follows a meeting of President Obama with the Russian President Medvedev in Moscow in early July 2009, made it clear that the promise of the 2004 Orange Revolution in the Ukraine was still unfulfilled.

"The leaders of this country came together once in 2004 because they knew a free and prosperous Ukraine was more important than any one politician and any one political party. I have no doubt Ukrainians will come together again", Biden said referring to the Ukrainian Presidential Elections scheduled for January 2010, in which the pro-Western oriented President Yushchenko and the Prime Minister Tymoshenko will be rivals.

After completing his three-day visit to Kiev, on Wednesday Biden headed for Georgia.

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