FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT
Remarks With President-elect Petro Poroshenko Before Their Meeting
Remarks
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Marriott Hotel
Warsaw, Poland
June 4, 2014
SECRETARY KERRY: Good morning, everybody. It's a great pleasure for me to be with President-elect Poroshenko, who won a dramatic victory all across Ukraine. He won everywhere, and clearly has been given a mandate to try to lead the country into a new era. And I look forward to this meeting to talk about some of those priorities, then he will meet with the President.
And what happened in Ukraine in this election is really quite remarkable. It's a great example to the world, an example about courage, determination, and, most of all, a commitment to be free, to determine their own future. So we will work very, very closely. It's a privilege for me to be with the president-elect, who will be sworn in formally this Saturday, and Vice President Biden will be there. We look forward to celebrating that.
PRESIDENT-ELECT POROSHENKO: I want to thank the people of the United States for (inaudible) for the democracy, for the freedom. And I think it is enormously important to have a (inaudible) with the United States, with the European Union, and I'm really confident that we modernize the country, we build up the democracy, and we build up the freedom. Welcome.
And what happened in Ukraine in this election is really quite remarkable. It's a great example to the world, an example about courage, determination, and, most of all, a commitment to be free, to determine their own future. So we will work very, very closely. It's a privilege for me to be with the president-elect, who will be sworn in formally this Saturday, and Vice President Biden will be there. We look forward to celebrating that.
PRESIDENT-ELECT POROSHENKO: I want to thank the people of the United States for (inaudible) for the democracy, for the freedom. And I think it is enormously important to have a (inaudible) with the United States, with the European Union, and I'm really confident that we modernize the country, we build up the democracy, and we build up the freedom. Welcome.
