During Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Ukraine, the vice president reassured Ukraine that the US still supports the country's entry into NATO. Biden rejected the notion that another country could have " right to dictate to you or any other country what alliance you will seek to belong to or what bilateral relationships you have" (via Reuters). The vice president closely linked the energy issue to democratic stability in Ukraine. Biden also argued that energy independence is an important factor in creating a more competitive economy. Unspoken by Biden is the use of Ukraine's energy dependence by Russia to interfere in the county's internal politics.
"Nowhere is the relationship between democracy, development, and security clearer than when it comes to energy. Right now, in the United States, we are making significant efforts - at some political expense I might add - to diversify our energy supply, to invest in efficiency, and make some very difficult decisions about how to deal with the carbon footprint," he said.
In his meeting Tuesday with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, Biden discussed ways to revive the Ukrainian economy, which has been hit hard by the global economic crisis. In his address, he noted that the Ukrainian government has agreed to economic and banking reforms and also to phase out energy subsidies.
His statements while in Ukraine couldn't come at a more important time for the country, which faces a bleaker economic contraction according to the
World Bank. Its predicting a
15% contraction in GDP this year, another downward revision for the county.
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