GingeOrCringe
Junior
- Apr 5, 2020
- 625
Security: Private/Encrypted |
To: John Glass, Jay Stevens Odinson |
From: Ihor Kharchenko |
Subject: ADS inquiry |
CC: Viktor Yushchenko, Oleksandr Kuzmuk, and Oleh Bilorus |
Salutations Secretary Glass and Deputy Secretary Stevens,
I'm writing to your department to determine whether Ukraine is permitted to purchase items from American Defense Sales. The company does not indicate who exactly we should contact within the US Defense Department, so I'm addressing it to both of you--I apologize if this is incorrect. We are certain we meet some of the requirements--1. We are an independent republic 2. We are not at war with the United States or any of her allies (and never plan to be). Ukraine is also an active member of the Global Assembly and respectful of the resolutions it passes, which meets requirement No. 4.
However, the third requirement "Have established diplomatic relations with the United States including an exchange of embassies and ambassadors;" gives us pause as it does not specify just how well established these relations must be, if anything beyond the exchange of ambassadors. I should note that our former foreign minister Borys Tarasyuk attempted to contact your previous administration in the spring of last year to establish diplomatic talks, but never received a reply. We would like to assume this was due to the heavy workload representatives of the United States must undertake as leaders of the free world, and not due to any leftover Cold War suspicion.
Ukraine would like a fresh start. We would like to shift towards the more liberal minded ideals your country so exceptionally represents, and we believe ADS has products which could help us defend our newly restored liberties.
Respectfully,
Ihor Yúriyovych Kharchenko
First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs