You're reading: Foreign minister: European integration main direction of Ukraine’s development

 Foreign Minister of Ukraine Kostiantyn Hryschenko has said that European integration remains a priority for Ukraine.

 “The European integration is a priority, the main direction of the state development,” Hryschenko said speaking to the students of the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine in Kyiv on Saturday.

He stressed that Ukraine needed experts in European unification policy and integration mechanisms.

In addition, Hryschenko noted that now is the beginning not only of a new academic year, but also of a new diplomatic season.

“This new diplomatic season will be special both for us and for you. Ukraine will chair the OSCE, a dialogue with the European Union will be developing, there will be elections to the Verkhovna Rada and the continuation of reforms in Ukraine, in which Ukraine’s diplomacy is playing the role of a conductor of the national economy to the world markets,” the minister said.

Leaving the building of the academy, the minister refused to answer reporters’ questions and comment on the statements by the head of the ministry’s information policy department, Oleh Voloshyn, concerning the outgoing head of the EU Delegation in Ukraine, Jose Manuel Pinto Teixeira.

“That’s why he is the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, to make statements. I cannot comment on the statements by the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman,” Hryschenko told journalists.

Earlier, Voloshyn slammed Teixeira’s interview with the Ukrayinska Pravda online publication, noting that the diplomat was not in the position to criticize the Ukrainian government.