Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Foreign minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko Foreign minister Kostiantyn Hryschenko expects the number of Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad to be cut.

He gave his position on the matter during the Big Politics political talk show on the Inter television channel on Friday evening.

"The reduction [in the number of diplomatic missions of Ukraine abroad] is likely to be, but we will try to retain the infrastructure where it is possible," said the foreign minister.

If one conceives a desire to find Ukrainian interests in any country of the world, one will find some interests, but such interests not always require opening of a Ukrainian embassy there, said Hryschenko.

"Even on a small island of Nauru some Ukrainian citizens have their interests, but this does not mean we need to have an embassy there. Probably, we could sometimes send a representative of the Prosecutor General's Office there, but this is not enough for opening an embassy," he said.

In the conditions of shortage of funding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strives for a pragmatic approach toward the staff questions, said Foreign Minister Hryschenko.

He said the ministry is likely to assess effectiveness of employees and departments of the ministry.

Hryschenko gave a positive assessment of an initiative from President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine to transfer trade and economic missions of Ukraine to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from the Economy Ministry.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it would assess the effectiveness of Ukrainian diplomatic missions abroad in the first half of 2010.