The working session of the Meeting of Heads of Foreign Diplomatic Institutions of Ukraine dedicated to the ways of solving the social consequences of the Chornobyl catastrophe took place on August 25, 2005 at the Chornobyl Center.
Boris Tarasyuk, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, David Zhvaniya, Ukrainian Minister for Emergency Situations, the administration of the Chornobyl NPP, Slavutych city and Chornobyl Center participated in the working session.
Boris Tarasyuk emphasized that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine considers mobilization of international support on Chornobyl problems solution to be an important constituent of its activity. On behalf of the Ukrainian diplomacy the Minister expressed his gratitude to all those people who work at the Chornobyl NPP and in Slavutych for their courage in overcoming the nuclear catastrophe and its consequences.
In his welcoming speech to the participants of the session David Zhvaniya emphasized that the world community activated its support of social programs of the Ukrainian government on Chornobyl. The Minister also drew everybody’s attention to the necessity of demonstrating to the international society the mutual benefit from the study of the Chornobyl consequences and measures development on nuclear catastrophes prevention in future.
Yevgen Garin, Coordinating Director of the Chornobyl Center, drew the attendants’ attention to the effectiveness of the international projects in the framework of the International Chornobyl Center (ICC). The desire of scientists and experts to join its activity confirms this fact. Yevgen Garin appealed to the Ukrainian diplomats for supporting the development of the international collaboration under the aegis of the ICC.
Ukrainian ambassadors and charges d’affaires put a number of concrete questions to the administration of the Slavutych city, Chornobyl Center and Chornobyl NPP regarding the possibility of practical assistance at the diplomatic level and suggested concrete measures on achieving the posed tasks.
The last high-level diplomatic meeting on Chornobyl-related problems solution took place in 1997.
