Yushchenko names "political blunder" attempts to revise nature of Ukraine-Russia relations

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President Viktor Yushchenko named today "a political blunder" the attempts to revise the nature of relations between Ukraine and Russia.

"We see organization of our bilateral Ukraine-Russia relations as friendly alone. We proceed from the fact that the status of these relations is the highest one", V. Yushchenko told a news conference in Ljubljana in view of today's address of the Russian State Duma to the Russian president and government offering Russia to consider "the accelerated steps" made by Ukraine towards NATO accession "as actual unilateral withdrawal of Ukraine" from the Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership Agreement between Ukraine and Russia and to consider the issue on Russia's withdrawal from the document is case of such steps.

The Head of State noted that Ukraine treats bilateral relations with Russia in a reasonable manner and it has never allowed and will never allow in the characteristics of these interrelations the tones and words that could discredit them.

At the same time, President Yushchenko stressed that Ukraine is a sovereign state and it builds its foreign policy dimension in frames of own national interests. He reminded that fundamentals of Ukraine's foreign policy course were fixed by law since 2003, and Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic choice is fixed by law as well.

"This is no a policy against the third party. The question is about the right of the state to form the fundamentals of national security. This poses no threat to other countries" he underscored.

V. Yushchenko expressed confidence that most urgent issues within Ukraine-Russia relations should be solved through a dialogue.

UKRINFORM