Year of Poland: Starting with the Good News
After all, when two heads of state meet they can help solve each other’s problems and further mutual confidence. Polish President Aleksandr Kwasniewski’s gift to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma looked very symbolic. A Polish version of Mr. Kuchma’s book Ukraine is Not Russia that had come off the presses and hit the Polish shelves several weeks ago, was obviously meant to coincide with the commencement of the Year of Poland in Ukraine.
The presidents began by trying to smooth over the rough edges that had emerged of late in Ukrainian-Polish relationships. Aleksandr Kwasniewski said that the privatization of the Polish metallurgical combine Huta Czestochowa had been suspended until the special commission’s findings. He stressed that its findings would annul the tender’s results “or a different manner will be found.” Rumors of this Polish gift spread last week. True, meeting with Ukrainian journalists on March 26, Pres. Kwasniewski did not give a straight answer to the straight question about the possibility of revising the decision to privatize Huta Czestochowa. On the one hand, he informed that “a tender is a tender.” The Polish president’s visit to Ukraine was in what could least be described as favorable conditions; he had to reduce its duration from three to one day because of the cabinet crisis in Poland. As earlier reported, Aleksandr Kwasniewski was to visit Donetsk.
Instead, The Day learned that the Ukrainian coal miners’ center would be visited by Polish Ambassador Marek Ziolkowski, and that he would meet with the ICD Corporation leadership. Leonid Kuchma thanked the Polish president for suspending Huta Czestochowa’s privatization and said he hoped such problems would not impede bilateral relations.
In regard to domestic issues, Mr. Kuchma pointed to illogical statements being made by the opposition, to the effect that the possibility of his running for president the third time had no future; that the opposition was scared by the possibility at the same time. “Please let me finish my term as the current head of state. That’s what I am going to do, nothing else, before the next elections. After that life will dot the i’s and cross the t’s, as you know,” the Ukrainian president said. And then joked, saying that when they asked him if he was actually planning to run for president the third time, he told them to read the press.
Aleksandr Kwasniewski and Leonid Kuchma paid attention to sports issues, saying the supported the proposal of both national soccer federations to hold the 2012 European championships in Ukraine and Poland (last September the soccer federations resolved to campaign for the 2003 championships to be held in both countries).
The Year of Poland has begun in Ukraine. The opening ceremony took place Friday night at the Taras Shevchenko National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater of Ukraine. The audience filled slowly, so much so that volunteer students had to be let in. Perhaps comparing it to the opening of the Year of Russia might look improper, but on that occasion the scope appeared considerably larger at the packed Ukraine Palace. As it was, the concert commemorating the beginning of the Year of Poland turned out on a very high professional level, although some one-third of the audience had left long before the concert, obviously unable to sit through the official pomp. But most people stayed long enough to hear both presidents and greet them with hearty applause, particularly when Mr. Kwasniewski declared that “there is no independent Poland without independent Ukraine.” He went on to say that the motto Poland and Ukraine Together in Europe had a “heroic” meaning, considering the joint Polish and Ukrainian military presence in Kosovo and Iraq. “It also means our cooperation with NATO; it means that Poland is a constant, loyal, and consistent supporter of Ukrainian matters in various structures, and it will remain one.” Leonid Kuchma said he hoped that Poland’s EU membership would not elbow Ukrainians out of the Polish market, but would open up new horizons for Ukraine. He stressed that Aleksandr Kwasniewski spoke in favor of Ukraine when an attempt had been made, at the last stage, to “discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community,” that he used words “worthy of a wise statesman, excellent neighbor, and true friend. Opening the Year of Poland in Ukraine, I would say that we are taking a demonstrative step to enhance our relations, because now we say Poland and actually mean the European community.”
