WASHINGTON - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko thanked the United States Wednesday for its support during the "Orange Revolution" that swept him into power, and made an urgent appeal for economic aid to bolster democracy in his country.
In a speech before both houses of the US Congress, Yushchenko presented a high-minded vision of his country as a future beacon of democratic and free-market principles.
But he also presented to US lawmakers a wishlist of economic and trade support, calling on Washington to discard Soviet-era trade and customs restrictions and to assist Ukraine in its bid for World Trade Organization membership.
Ukraine hopes to join the WTO by the end of the year, but Washington is insisting that Kiev provide additional guarantees for protection of intellectual property before it gives its backing.
"We're building an open economy that encourages innovation, rewards initiative and ensures high social standards," Yushchenko told an enthusiastic audience of lawmakers, who gave him a rousing ovation and at times even chanted his name.
"We are beginning an implacable war on corruption, promoting fair competition and forming transparent government-to-business relations," Yushchenko said, adding that the democracies of the United States and Western Europe provide a template from which the new Ukraine is to be built.
"My goal is to place Ukraine in the forefront of prosperous democracies. My vision of the future is Ukraine in a united Europe," he said.
He asked Congress to scrap 1974 trade legislation which forbids the US government to extend the normal trade privileges to "non-market economy" countries.
"Dear friends, we want to bury the Cold War relics. Senators and House members, I'm calling upon you to waive the Jackson-Vanik amendment," Yushchenko said.
"Please make this step toward Ukraine. Please tear down this wall," he appelaed to US lawmakers, invoking language once used by US President Ronald Reagan in a famous address at the Berlin War.
Yushchenko's speech marks the first by a leader of a former Soviet republic, excluding Russia, and was a high points of a four-day visit to the United States, scarcely two months after being sworn in as Ukraine's new president.
The speech follows a meeting earlier this week with US President George W. Bush, and a visit with members of Chicago's large and vibrant Ukrainian community, where his wife grew up.
Yushchenko also asked for Washington's "political, financial and technological resources to erect a new shelter over the destroyed reactor of the Chernobyl power plant," the site of a massive nuclear meltdown more than two decades ago.
On the military front, he hailed the "genuinely strategic partnership" between Washington and Kiev, despite plans to complete the withdrawal of Ukraine's 1,600-strong force in Iraq by mid-October.
Instead he noted that, for the time being, at least, "Ukrainian soldiers are risking their lives shoulder to shoulder with their American counterparts."
"Ukraine will be a reliable partner to the US in fighting terrorism. I'm sure we will be able to overcome it, and not only by power of force."
The Ukrainian president expressed gratitude for US support during the turbulent weeks in late December and January when a popular uprising led to a rigged presidential election being thrown out, allowing him to take office.
"Many noble men and women on both sides of the Atlantic have always believed in Ukraine's democratic future. Our common belief came true in the days of the Orange Revolution," he said, hailing the vote as the beginning of a new day for Ukrainian politics and "a new era in US-Ukrainian relations."
"It is here that the Ukrainian nation enjoyed support at the hardest times of its history," he said.
"It is in this hall that freedom for Ukraine was voiced at the time when the nation was deprived of its own voice."
04/06/2005 17:20 GMT