Informal meetings are essential for foreign policy - Gorbulin

Informal meetings between Ukrainian and European leaders are an essential component of foreign policy process of Ukraine. So said Vladimir Gorbulin, former secretary of National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, advisor to the President of Ukraine, to the journalists before the official opening ceremony of the 4th annual meeting of Yalta European Strategy (YES).

"These informal meetings facilitate exchange of opinions between participants, understanding of the current position of Ukraine, discussing of internal problems of Ukraine, give an opportunity to look at ourselves, not only in the mirror, but in tridimensional space,"- said Vladimir Gorbulin. - If you look back for a couple of years you could see that major achievements were made as a results of solutions searching prior to official negotiations in all our international projects.

Also, advisor to the President expressed a hope that the meeting will somehow facilitate settling the ongoing political crisis in Ukraine. "It is going to be hard since none of the European politicians is able to perceive our unique Ukrainian soul". It's a joke, of course. Seriously, though, assessment of our behavior may help us escape from the crisis.

"Yalta European Strategy" (YES) is an independent organization, which brings together high-level policy-makers, business leaders, thinkers, researchers, and journalists in Ukraine and abroad to facilitate Ukraine's accession to EU. The annual YES summits in Yalta have become the leading informal high-level forum focused on discussing and development of political recommendations. In 2006, the YES experts developed an analytical document "Agenda-2020", representing a step-by-step strategy for Ukraine's accession to the European Union in 2020. YES organization was created by a Ukrainian businessman and public figure, Victor Pinchuk in 2004.