Bob Dole: “President Clinton is now in Ukraine. I support his decision to visit Kiev. Economic and political reform in Ukraine are…”

“President Clinton is now in Ukraine. I support his decision to visit Kiev. Economic and political reform in Ukraine are proceeding very well. There is strong bipartisan support for United States assistance to Ukraine. It is in the American national interest to strengthen our relations with Ukraine. I hope the President has a successful and productive summit with President Kuchman. The report cards are now being filed on the Moscow Summit. As I said yesterday, I was disappointed at the lack of progress on the two key summit issues: Nuclear sales to Iran and the conflict in Chechnya. It seems pretty clear the American agenda at this summit did not fare well. My staff spoke to State Department and National Security Council officials yesterday afternoon. The White House provided my office with copies of all the joint statements from the Moscow Summit. To conclude that the summit made little progress in advancing American interests is not politics, and it is not partisan. It is simply a review of the facts. On Iran, Russia did not agree to cancel its sale of nuclear reactors to Iran. If President Yeltsin cannot make the decision to stop the sale, I do not have great confidence that it will be made later at a lower level.”