Chrétien Visits Ukraine

Former Canadian Prime Minister, the Right Honourable Jean Chrtien, and Madame Eline Chrtien visited Kyiv from May 23-25 whose program intinery included discussions with Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and with Oleksandr Lavrynovych, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine.

Ukrainian ministerial hosts noted the former Prime Minister played an important role in the establishment and development of cooperation between Canada and Ukraine in a number of areas. Under M. Chrtien, the legal basis of bilateral relations was created, yielding important and purposeful visits.    Canada effectively supported Ukraine’s interests in NATO and in the WTO. In addition, Canada has been one of the most important international donors of aid to alleviate and reduce the effects of the Chornobyl Nuclear Disaster.

The highlight of the visit was a ceremony conferring Jean Chrtien with an honourary Doctor’s Degree from the prestigious National University of Kyiv - Mohyla Academy on May 24. The Academic Council voted in favour of granting a doctoral degree to M. Chrtien in recognition of his special role in the building and development of bilateral relations between Canada and Ukraine. In his degree acceptance speech, M. Chrtien addressed issues on developments in democracy in both countries. Later that same day, Jean and Eline Chrtien  and Abina Dann, Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine, took part in the opening ceremony of the new, state-of-the-art university (undergraduate) Bachelor’s Library.