Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko sees the post-war reconciliation between France and Germany as a useful precedent for relations with Russia.
"The success of Franco-German reconciliation over the past half-century is a hopeful model. The aim is clear: Russia and Ukraine [should be] on the road to becoming two prosperous and friendly neighbors in the manner of today's France and Germany," Tymoshenko said in an article for a special edition of The Economist Magazine "The World in 2009."
"To achieve this outcome, there is an urgent need to establish mechanisms that could contribute to reform and renewal in both countries, without breeding tension," the premier said.
Tymoshenko said that greater confidence and stability would come to Russian-Ukrainian relations if they were to be set within the wider European context.
"In our Orange Revolution, Ukraine made a choice, not between Russia and the West, but between democracy and authoritarianism. That choice was irrevocable, but is still challenged by some. This is why relations between Ukraine, Russia and the EU must not be allowed to drift. Only by creating firm institutional links will common political and economic projects come to dominate relations across the region, rather than fears about security," she said.
The Ukrainian premier said she hoped that in 2009 Europe would start addressing the strategic task of dealing with "the vacuum in security that arose in the countries that lie between the EU and Russia".
"In 2009, Europe will begin to recognize that only by securing the European vocations of both Russia and Ukraine, can the European Union continue on its path of stability and prosperity," she said.
