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Statement by the President of Republic on the Conference ''Baltic and Black Sea Co-operation: to Integrated Europe of the 21st Century Free of Dividing Lines'' in Yalta, September 10, 1999
10.09.1999

President Kuchma,
Dear colleagues,

I would first of all like to thank President Kuchma for this well-arranged and timely conference, the Yalta Two. During the First Yalta conference in 1945 the democratic world was too weak to resist the division of Europe into spheres of influence.

The best reason for my attending the Yalta Two conferences today is to mark the fundamental change that has taken place in the world. During and after the first conference at Yalta the peoples lying in the enormous zone between Berlin and Moscow and between the Baltic and Black Seas were the objects of history; that is, others decided our fates without consulting us.

Now, half a century later, we - the representatives of these very same peoples - come here as the subjects of history, as countries that are making their own way in the world and more important their own decisions about their futures.

But even that is not the real reason we are here. As representatives of mostly small and in some cases new countries, none of us are simply subjects of history. We remain its objects as well, driven hither and yon by larger forces and larger states.

While that is the normal condition for most countries in our time, it is not one that we can be entirely comfortable with. So we are in Yalta to affirm that Yalta II is the negation of Yalta I; that it is the negation of the Nazi-Soviet pact, which led to Yalta I; that this new meeting, held on independent Ukrainian soil and attended by heads of state sets the stage for a new synthesis, one in which all countries will understand what it is to be an object of history as well as how important it is to be the subject of history.

In my country, we have always had the motto ''nothing about us without us''. That should become the watchword for all of us and it is certainly why we are here.

Mr. Chairman,

Some nations behind this table are members of the European Union and of NATO, others are members of one or the other. Still others would like to join both the EU and NATO. Yet other countries here are members of the CIS. This multitude of different associations is a useful reminder that the enlargement of the European Union and of NATO has not created and will not create new barriers to our developing co-operation. On the other hand it is also a proof that countries that are members of different organisations can effectively work together, if the political will for such a co-operation is there. What is important is that each country is allowed to choose its own associations without any interference from any other country. That is the message we have to send from today's meeting to the world, as a proof that Yalta II is the negation of Yalta I.

That is a big responsibility. It is an even bigger opportunity. Consequently, we cannot fail to come together to both overcome the past and reaffirm our principles.

Thank you!

 

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