A reminder of history for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
Today the U.S. Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, arrived to Ukraine. Before meeting with the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, he met with several Ukrainian reformers: Daria Kaleniuk, Executive Director of the Anticorruption Action Centre, Lenna Koszarny, founding partner and CEO of Horizon Capital, Andriy Kobolyev, CEO of Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz. I was also invited to the meeting.
After the official meeting I presented a symbolic gift to Rex Tillerson Secretary.
The day before I went across all the second-hand bookstores looking for an old Ukrainian issue, and by virtue of a large number of truly striking coincidences I've chosen this one.
First, this is the 13th edition of the "Ogonyok" magazine, issued exactly on Rex Tillerson's birthday – 23 March 1952.
Second, that's astonishing, but this particular edition encloses an article devoted to the artistic heritage of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko. There is a couple of reproductions of Taras Shevchenko's paintings in a separate insert.
Third, it was the late 80th when the "Ogonyok" under a famous Ukrainian writer and publicist Vitaliy Korotych reached its golden age. Exactly at that time "Ogonyok" became a symbol of publicity and changes.
And the most important. It was exactly in March 1952 Joseph Stalin conveyed a note to the USA, France and Great Britain proposing to start the GDR and FRG reunification. In exchange, the USSR demanded full political and military neutrality for Germany. The Western countries sent a response to Moscow three days after Rex Tillerson's birthday – 25 March 1952. It was a flat denial. And they did emphasize, that Germany is entitled to choose on its own which unions and with whom to enter.
Later, Konrad Adenauer made his famous statement: "...there are 3 options for Germany: joining the West, joining the East or neutrality. But neutrality implies losing our country. We will turn into an object and will never become a subject again. Integration with the East due to a complete difference of our ideologies should not be brought into question..."
It's not a secret, that the attempts of making Ukraine adopt the so-called neutrality policy and give up the plan of joining the NATO have been active. Obviously, all the attempts are one way or another directed and empowered by Moscow. So I really hope, that the Western world's response will be the same, as it was 75 years ago in Germany's case – Ukraine is capable of choosing it allies.
I'm sure, Rex Tillerson remembers well the Soviet reality and the spirit of the times. The State Secretary was definitely touched by the gift. "It's a treasure. And I'll take it with me", – Mr Tillerson promised.
Блог автора – матеріал, який відображає винятково точку зору автора. Текст блогу не претендує на об'єктивність та всебічність висвітлення теми, яка у ньому піднімається. Редакція "Української правди" не відповідає за достовірність та тлумачення наведеної інформації і виконує винятково роль носія. Точка зору редакції УП може не збігатися з точкою зору автора блогу.
