About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

Opening Statement for Third Day of Public Hearings from Volker Whistleblower Complaint on Ukraine (Kelly Smith, comp.) 1 (11/19/2019)

handle is hein.presidents/usgvtwht0172 and id is 1 raw text is: Testimony before the House Impeachment Inquiry Amb. Kurt Volker Former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations November 19, 2019 Thank you very much for the opportunity to provide this testimony today. As you know, I was the first person to come forward to testify as part of this Inquiry. I did so voluntarily, and likewise voluntarily provided relevant documentation in my possession, in order to be as cooperative, clear and complete as possible. I am here today voluntarily, and I remain committed to cooperating fully and truthfully with this Committee. All I can do is provide the facts as I understood them at the time. I did this on October 3 in private, and I will do so again today. Like many others who have testified in this inquiry, I am a career foreign policy professional. I began my career as an intelligence analyst for Northern Europe for the Central Intelligence Agency in 1986, before joining the State Department in 1988. I served in diplomatic postings, primarily focused on European political and security issues, for over twenty years, under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama. My last three positions before leaving the Senior Foreign Service in 2009 were as Director for NATO and West European Affairs at the National Security Council, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs at the State Department, and, finally, as U.S. Ambassador to NATO. In the Spring of 2017, then-Secretary of State Tillerson asked if I would come back to government service as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations. I did this on a part-time, voluntary basis, with no salary paid by the U.S. taxpayer, simply because I believed it was important to serve our country in this way. I believed I could steer U.S. policy in the right direction. For over two years, as U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, my singular focus was advancing the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States. In particular, that meant pushing back on Russian aggression and supporting the development of a strong, resilient, democratic, and prosperous Ukraine - one that overcomes a legacy of corruption and becomes integrated into a wider transatlantic community. This is critically important for U.S. national security. If we can stop and reverse Russian aggression in Ukraine, we can prevent it elsewhere. If Ukraine, the cradle of Slavic civilization predating Moscow, succeeds as a freedom-loving, prosperous and secure democracy, it gives us enormous hope that Russia may one day change - providing a better life for Russian people,

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most