‘We’re fully behind you,’ PM pledges
Harper the first world leader to meet with new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko
KYIV— Prime Minister Stephen Harper affirmed Canada’s unwavering support of a new, westward-looking Ukraine on Saturday as he became the first world leader to meet the country’s newly inaugurated president.
Harper’s meeting with Petro Poroshenko, who formally took the oath of office as president Saturday morning in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, has significant political overtones in Canada. There are 1.2 million Canadians of Ukrainian descent, and they represent an important voting bloc.
Harper said that although Ukraine faces tough challenges, it can count on Canada’s continued support.
“I am here on behalf of the government of Canada to express our solidarity with the government of Ukraine as you stand up for your unity, your liberty and your territorial integrity,” Harper told Poroshenko in an ornate meeting room in his new presidential office building.
“We’re fully behind you on that. I also do want to express the solidarity of the Canadian people with the Ukrainian people in your aspiration for a democratic European future and not a return to the country’s Soviet past.”
Harper said Poroshenko and his administration have some tough challenges ahead as they set out to rebuild Ukraine’s political systems and grow a hobbled economy.
Harper also met with U.S. Vice-President Joe Biden on the margins of Saturday’s inauguration.
“They reaffirmed the need for Russia to recognize the result of elections in Ukraine, to stop the flow of weapons and militants across the border and to exercise its influence among armed separatists to lay down their weapons and end the violence in Ukraine,” Harper’s office said in a statement.
Poroshenko was elected on May 25, in a ballot that was monitored by 500 Canadian observers.
The vote was called after his predecessor, pro-Russia president Viktor Yanukovych, fled Ukraine in February following anti-Russia protests.
Harper was on his way back to Ottawa on Saturday after a whirlwind visit, his second since March. He arrived in Kyiv early Saturday.