Page 16 - DIVA_3_2007_No.30

In the Security Council...

Interview with His Excellency Vitaly Churkin,

Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the
Russian Federation to the United Nations in New York

Yes, in fact, I have been very
fortunate in my life. I think
that everything I have done
has been very interesting. If
you want me to go all the way
back, I spent five interesting
years as an interpreter at the
Strategic Arms Limitation
Talks in Geneva back in the
1970s. Then I was a junior
diplomat -- a very interesting
posting -- in Washington DC
in a period when things were
changing. I came there in
1982 when Leonid Brezhnev
was still in power, and I left in
1987 when Gorbachev had
taken over. Then there was a
very fascinating time when I
was the last spokesman of the
USSR Foreign Ministry.
During my relatively short
fourteen-month term, I wor-
ked for five different Foreign
Ministers -- if you count
Shevardnadze twice because
he returned for a very short
period before the USSR fell
He has a great sense of his long list of merits ... He Canada from 1998 to apart. So I had a lot of fun.
humour, Mr Ambassador. is a graduate of Moscow 2003. He was then This is my third ambassado-
One day, by pure chance, I State Institute of Foreign Ambassador-at-Large at rial posting, and all of them
ran into him at the UN and Relations, and has a Ph.D. the Ministry of Foreign have been both very different
took the liberty of asking if in history from the USSR Affairs of the Russian and very interesting. First of
he was the person I Diplomatic Academy. He Federation, a post he held all, I was ambassador to
thought he was ... He sim- has been Director of the from 2003 to 2006. He was Belgium -- an interesting and
ply laughed and say -- Information Department of also the chairman of the diverse country whose people
"Hush, please don't tell the Ministry of Foreign Senior Officials of the Arctic were very hospitable. I also
anybody!" Affairs of the Union of Council -- an enthusiast for had dealings with NATO
Soviet Socialist Republics! the Arctic wilderness. during an important period in
However, every time there Russian Federation. He shaping Russia's relations
is a sensitive subject also served as a spokes- Q: You have a long and with both it and the Western
European Union (WEU).
discussed in the Security man for the Ministry and impressive
diplomatic
Council, His Excellency is was Deputy Foreign career. Which, among all Some people might
requested by the media to Minister of the Russian your assignments, have you remember the WEU. I think
express his point of view -- Federation from 1992 to appreciated the most, and that officially it still exists on
a task he carries out with 1994. Prior to his current for what reason? paper, but its functions have
brilliance. diplomatic post, Vitaly been merged with those of the
Churkin was his country's You make me sound like an European Union. The WEU
Let us briefly state some of Ambassador to Belgium old man! (Editoral note: His was a military and
from 1994 to 1998, and to Excellency is in his mid-50s). political organization of

14 32007 Diva