OTTAWA: Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko went to Canada yesterday where he sought support for his country’s bid to ally with Nato in a speech to parliament.
The pro-Western president’s official visit comes one day after Ukraine took its first firm step out of Russia’s orbit by ratifying a landmark political and economic partnership pact with the 28-nation EU bloc.
The former Soviet country’s future, however, remains uncertain in the wake of a five-month separatist uprising that left a wedge of its Russian-speaking east enjoying almost complete autonomy under the terms of a tenuous September 5 truce.
Poroshenko will travel next to Washington where he will press lawmakers for a US security pledge.
“At the (mid-September) Nato summit I have declared my country’s desire to move closer with Nato and gaining the status of a major non-Nato (member) ally,” he said in Ottawa.
“I really count on your support,” he told parliamentarians.
More than 1.2 million Canadians (1 in 35) are of Ukrainian descent, including astronaut Roberta Bondar, hockey legend Wayne Gretzky and former governor general of Canada Ray Hnatyshyn.
Ottawa, which was first to recognise Ukraine’s independence in 1991, in recent months has been among the West’s harshest critics of Moscow over its “aggression” in Eastern Ukraine, slapping round after round of economic sanctions against Russia, while sending humanitarian aid, non-lethal military equipment and election observers to Ukraine.
“Whether it takes five months or 50 years to liberate it, we will never, ever recognise the illegal Russian occupation of any Ukrainian territory,” said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Poroshenko thanked Canadians for their solidarity with Ukraine, while also calling for increased bilateral trade and investment.
AFP
