You're reading: Austrian president visits Ukraine

KYIV, MAY 17 – Austrian President Thomas Klestil offered support for Ukraine’s efforts to better integrate into Europe during an official visit to the former Soviet republic that began Wednesday.

"Austria stands for enlarging the European Union and sees that in Ukraine’s future," Klestil said. "We back the European orientation of Ukraine."

Klestil, accompanied by government officials and a delegation of Austrian businessmen, met Wednesday with Ukraine’s President Leonid Kuchma to discuss European security issues and bilateral relations, including economic ties.

Kuchma said he urged Klestil, whose country now holds the rotating chairmanship of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, to work for a more active OSCE role in settling regional conflicts. The OSCE headquarters are in Vienna.

The sides paid particular attention to conflict areas in the former Soviet Union, including Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan, Trans-Dniester in Moldova and the Russian northern Caucasus, according to Kuchma.

The two also discussed prospects for the resumption of ship traffic along the Danube River – which runs through both countries – and Ukraine’s plans to close down the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, site of the world’s worst nuclear accident in 1986.

Ukraine has pledged to close down Chernobyl this year, and Kuchma promised on Wednesday that a definite closure date would be worked out by month’s end.

Kuchma said his government was determined to attract more foreign investments and reverse Ukraine’s continuing post-Soviet economic decline.

At a joint news conference, Klestil also mentioned the issue of compensation payments to Ukrainians who were sent to Austria to work as slave labor for the Nazis during World War II.

An estimated 43,000 survivors live in Ukraine and Klestil said they will start receiving payments soon, following "very positive" results of a conference on the matter held in Vienna this week.

Participants in the conference said Wednesday that an agreement was reached on Austria setting up a fund to provide one-time payments between 20,000 schillings (dlrs 1,311) and 105,000 schillings (dlrs 6,884) to surviving slave laborers, who number about 150,000 in total.

Klestil is due to meet on Thursday with parliament speaker Ivan Pliushch and attend an Austrian-Ukrainian business forum.