The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has approved the appointment of Petro Poroshenko as Ukraine's new foreign minister.
This decision was supported by 240 out of 440 MPs registered in the
session hall. In particular, 151 MPs of the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko
faction, 63 of the Our Ukraine-People’s Self-Defense Bloc, 20 members
of the Bloc of Volodymyr Lytvyn, one MP of the Regions Party, one
member of the Communist Party faction and four MPs not belonging to any
faction voted for the nomination.
Poroshenko has taken his oath of office in parliament.
On October 7 Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko nominated
Poroshenko, the head of the National Bank’s Council, to the post of
foreign minister.
Poroshenko, born in 1965, is a graduate of the International Affairs
and International Law Department of Kyiv National University. He was
member of the Verkhovna Rada in 1998-2005. In 2005 he was Secretary of
the National Security and Defense Council.
Since February 2007, Poroshenko has been heading the Council of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The post of Ukraine’s foreign minister has been vacant since March
3, 2009, when the Verkhovna Rada dismissed Volodymyr Ohryzko from this
post. Later, Ohryzko asked the president not to propose his candidacy
for the second time due to his reluctance to work in Premier Yulia
Tymoshenko’s government.
On March 17, the president submitted to Verkhovna Rada the
nomination of Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oleh Shamshur
for foreign minister.
The council of the parliamentary coalition in response asked the
president to nominate for this post Borys Tarasiuk, who once headed the
Foreign Ministry.
However, the parliament was unable to consider cabinet appointments until this Friday.
