For Immediate Release
Office of the Vice President
May 4, 2006

Vice President's Remarks at a Breakfast Meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko at the Vilnius Conference 2006
Reval Hotel Lietuva
Vilnius, Lithuania

8:04 A.M. (Local)

THE VICE PRESIDENT: Delighted to have the opportunity this morning to spend some time with my old friend President Yushchenko from Ukraine. This is our third meeting, I believe. We've met previously in Poland and then in Washington. Developments in Ukraine are extraordinarily important, and all of us who support the development of freedom and democracy have been impressed with what our friends in Ukraine have achieved, and want to do everything we can to be of assistance in the days ahead. So welcome, Mr. President.

PRESIDENT YUSHCHENKO: Mr. Vice President, and your American colleagues, our bilateral relations belong to the highest category of strategic partnership. And we pay a lot of attention to the content of the negotiations. So I can say that over the last 12 months we managed to achieve quite significant progress. And most of that significant progress is associated with democratic developments that take place in Ukraine. Free and fair elections to Ukrainian parliament and local bodies of self-government was an important test for us. Probably for the first time, Ukrainian authorities were highly assessed by Ukrainian community -- by international community, including the Americans. We appreciate your help. And once again, we value our bilateral relations very highly. And we would like to thank the American side for that friendly attention that is being paid to the democratic developments in Ukraine. Thank you.

END 8:07 A.M. (Local)