You're reading: Pence emphasizes fight against corruption in Poroshenko meeting

During a two-minute White House video and photo opportunity this morning in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Donald J. Trump shook hands with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko (which is more than Trump did with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on a March 17 visit).

It’s still not clear what Poroshenko got for Ukraine from his June 20 Oval Office meeting with Trump.

But Poroshenko came away satisfied. “We received strong support from the U.S., support of sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of our state, as well as support in the continuation of reforms in Ukraine,” Poroshenko told journalists in Washington, D.C., according to a report here.

Here is a transcript of the remarks both presidents made at the public portion of their meeting.

A readout of Poroshenko’s meeting with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence emphasized the fight against corruption. “The Vice President met today with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to reaffirm the United States’ support for a peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and for President Petro Poroshenko’s implementation of the reforms necessary to transform Ukraine into a peaceful, prosperous, and secure European country. The Vice President highlighted continuing U.S. support for the Normandy Format negotiations to implement the Minsk agreements and stressed the importance of continued reforms to fight corruption, improve the business climate, and keep Ukraine’s International Monetary Fund program on track,” the statement said.

Even without concrete promises, Ukraine’s leader can claim victory because he scored a personal meeting ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nation has been waging war against Ukraine since 2014 at a cost of more than 10,000 lives and control of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the eastern Donbas.

The U.S. signaled substance behind the symbolism as well, with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control announcing they have added dozens of new Russian individuals and other companies to its sanctions list. The expansion of sanctions, along with the U.S. Senate’s near-unanimous vote to toughen sanctions on Russia, signals a harder line with the Kremlin than many people expected from America under Trump, whose ties to Russia are under investigation and who has spoken glowingly about Putin.  The U.S. and Russian leaders will have a chance to discuss their differences at the upcoming G20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany on July 7-8.

While official reports about the encounter had not been released immediately, Poroshenko was expected to ask for stronger U.S. support to end Russia’s war, including tougher sanctions, weapons and greater American involvement in peace talks.

Besides meeting with Trump and Pence, Poroshenko also had talks with U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and other cabinet members.

If the United States persist with tougher Russian sanctions, it could find itself at odds with some in Europe, including Germany. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has questioned the wisdom of tougher sanctions. Critics say that Russian-German natural gas interests promoting construction of the new Nord Stream 2 pipeline are behind the opposition. The pipeline is opposed by many in Europe, especially in Ukraine, which relies on the transit of Russian gas for at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product each year.

Poroshenko also met with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who sat next to U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie L. Yovanovitch in a photograph released by Poroshenko’s official website. Also attending from the Ukrainian side were Ukrainian Ambassador to the United States Valeriy Chaly, Deputy Presidential Administration Head Dmytro Shymkiv, Finance Minister Oleksandr Danyliuk, Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev and others. According to the presidential account of the meeting here, both sides agreed that Nord Stream 2 is a “menace” for the energy security of both Ukraine and Europe.

Poroshenko started his Washington, D.C., trip on June 19 with a visit to the Holodomor Memorial to pay tribute to the millions of Ukrainians starved to death in a genocide orchestrated by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin to crush Ukrainian resistance to collectivized farming. The president’s official account of the visit with the Ukrainian diaspora is here.

Even if no concrete new agreements came out of the talks, Poroshenko signaled that the extensive nature of talks with Trump and several members of his cabinet is a success for Ukraine, especially in its defense against Russia’s war.

“It is very important that my meeting, as Ukrainian president, in the White House will take place earlier than the meeting of Putin,” Poroshenko said, adding that it is necessary to “provide information and leave no chance for injustice.” The president emphasized that Ukraine has a very powerful bipartisan support in the U.S. Congress. His remarks are here.

Trump cites progress

In welcoming Poroshenko for day-long meetings, he made the common mistake of calling Ukraine “the Ukraine,” which he said is “a place where we’ve all been very much involved in.” Trump was very cordial, calling the meeting “a great honor” twice. Trump also said: “We’ve had some very, very good discussions. It’s going to continue throughout the day and I think a lot of progress has been made,” before giving the floor to Poroshenko, who said:

“It’s a great honor and a great pleasure to be together with you…our supporter and strategic partner. We’re really fighting for freedom and democracy. And with your very strong support in security and defense, the support of my 45 million nation, the country who is the biggest nation on the European continent. I am absolutely confident that today is a story of success. I’m proud to have you, Mr. President, and the United States as a co-sponsor of this historic event. We very much admire your leadership and your very active steps. Because today marks two historic dates — five months of your presidency and three years when we launched the first peace plan.”

Reuters reported that Poroshenko said he had discussed military and technical cooperation between his country and the United States during his talks in the White House. “During meetings in the White House military-technical cooperation was discussed and more detailed discussions will now take place with the U.S. defense minister,” Poroshenko said.

Agence-France Presse reported that the new sanctions involve 38 individuals and organizations, including two Russian government officials and 11 others who operate in the annexed Ukrainian region of Crimea. Among the individuals sanctioned was Petr Jarosh, head of the Russian Federal Migration Service in Crimea and Alexander Babakov, a Russian official liaising with Russian expatriates, according to the news agency, which reported further that the U.S. Treasury Department also barred Americans from offering new loans of greater than 90 days to 20 subsidiaries of the Russian energy firm Transneft, which already was subject to US sanctions.

Poroshenko: Keep Minsk deal

Interfax-Ukraine reported that Poroshenko, in response to a journalist’s question, said that he sees no need to scrap the 2015 Minsk peace agreement, which requires Russia to end support for the war, return control of 400 kilometers of eastern border to Ukraine and allow international monitors to roam freely.

“I see no need for this. The United States is our partner; we are interested in involving the United States in the effective process. The United States is a guarantor country under the Budapest Memorandum and today’s meeting confirms the importance of Ukraine for the United States and the strong U.S. commitment to supporting our state,” Poroshenko said.

Timothy Ash: Mostly ‘symbolic’ sanctions

London-based Ukraine analyst Timothy Ash was not impressed with the severity of the new U.S. sanctions.

“In terms of intensity, I think it would be fair to say that this latest iteration of sanctions is more symbolic than having much actual impact. If Iran sanctions are 10, prior existing Russia sanctions were 3, and we may now be at 3.25/10. This move is meant more to be symbolic to a range of players:

“First to the U.S. Congress to hold back from its bill to extend and codify Russia sanctions. The Trump administration hate these as they reduce their ability to ‘deal’ with Moscow going forward. The Trump administration hopes by making this preemptive move they take momentum away from the congressional drive.

“Second, to Ukraine, given they came during Poroshenko’s trip to D.C., likely this was staged to enable the Trump administration to roll out these sanctions in a show of support for Ukraine and also to try and show a hawkish side to Russia in front of its critics at home. Maybe this will cut Trump some slack with the Russiagate crisis. Meanwhile, Poroshenko can say he got to Trump before Putin and was able to spin the pro-Ukrainian side first. So everyone got something from this visit.

“Third, a message to Russia that the Trump administration is a serious adversary and that it is willing to use a stick if need be. That said I think this was still a pretty minimal move and really aimed at preventing Congress from doing much more long-term damage to Russia and the relationship with the US if sanctions are codified.

“Fourth, I think a message to the market not to be overly complacent on the sanctions front, and that the Trump administration is willing to act against Russia. That said it could have been more potent if the administration had followed the bright idea from the congressional draft by starting an investigation into how sanctions against the sovereign would impact. The latter would send a strong message to Western institutional investors to reduce positions in Russia. The fact that that did not happen means the U.S. administration still wants to tread carefully and minimize backdraft to investors back home.

“Finally, I think the timing was no coincidence coming on the day that Russia came to market with new 10-year and 30-year Eurobonds in a clear political move from Moscow to drive a hole through the sanctions regime by demonstrating an ability to issue cheaply despite sanctions and to secure significant participation from Western institutional investors. Let’s see whether today’s sanctions iteration had any impact there. Let’s see how Moscow reacts to this latest bout of US sanctions and whether it sees these as the minimum the Trump administration could do while still keeping its options open in negotiating with Russia. Codifying sanctions would kill any chance of future concessions from Moscow and logjam the current pretty dire status quo, at at least that would be the view from some within the Trump administration. Others might suggest that only by Congress really racking up the pressure with the threat of codification will Putin actually be forced into meaningful talks to bring an end to the conflict in Ukraine.”

Foreign Policy magazine quoted a White House readout of the visit: “President Donald J. Trump met today with President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine to discuss support for the peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine and President Poroshenko’s reform agenda and anticorruption efforts.”