Open Ukraine Foundation hosted Diplomatic Club Meeting with Nino Burdzhanadze, Ex-speaker of the Georgian Parliament
On October 3, 2008 the Diplomatic Club held a meeting with Nino BURDZHANADZE, ex-speaker of the Georgian parliament and President of the Foundation for Democracy and Development. The meeting was opened by Arseniy YATSENYUK, Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Founder of Open Ukraine Foundation.
In his welcoming words, Mr. Yatsenyuk noted that Ukraine faces a task to help Georgia escape from economic collapse and focus on the development of Georgia in a democratic way after its crisis. Mr. Yatsenyuk also supported the 43 questions posed to the Georgian authorities, which Nino Burdzhanadze made public on October 2nd 2008.
The Ex-speaker of the Georgian Parliament addressed to the authorities of his country such a profound list of questions to emphasize that only through painful but serious analysis of the August events and its mistakes can Georgia correctly take the next steps.
At the informal meeting of Ukrainian politicians with Nino Burdzhanadze the guests stressed the importance of the lessons learned from the Georgian-Russian conflict for both conflicting states, Europe and the world in general. Mr. Yatsenyuk opined that lately international law has been more frequently broken - the situation has been changing from world order to world disorder. It should be a warning bell and cause worry for all the international society and Ukrainian elite in particular. Mrs. Burdzhanadze agreed with Mr Yatsenyuk by adding that after the August events in Georgia, Russia should not be left with a syndrome of impunity, since the matter of determination of the new world order must still be based on the supremacy of law, not on the supremacy of force.
Mrs. Burdzhanadze noted that the last conflict changed the geopolitical situation in the world for the worse. She believes that the external political priority of Georgia has to remain orientated towards the USA and Europe.
At present, Mrs. Burdzhanadze does not herself belong to those who are in power, nor to those who are in opposition. Nevertheless she plans to create her own political party, which will criticize the present Georgian power in a constructive manner and in the frame of diplomatic etiquette.
Another point of the discussion was bilateral relations between Ukraine and Russia. Mr. Yatsenyuk said that he welcomes the prolongation of the Agreement for Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine. In the meantime, he supposes that such agreements do not prevent a number of bilateral conflicts. This agreement should be supplemented with sub-agreements which would include the mechanisms of implementation of each of the points.
The Diplomatic Club meeting was attended by Victor Pinchuk, philanthropist and businessman; Merab Antadze, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Georgia to Ukraine; Anatoly Zlenko and Hennadiy Udovenko, ex-Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine; Igor Dolgov, Chief of Main Directorate of the Foreign Policy of the Secretariat of the President of Ukraine; Andriy Kurkov, writer; Oleksiy Haran and Vadym Kiselyov, Ukrainian political analytics; and other foreign policy experts.
The Diplomatic Club is a joint initiative of the Open Ukraine Foundation and Victor Pinchuk Foundation. The Club aims to help Ukrainian leaders to better understand global developments and to reinforce political support of Ukraine in the world.
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