ITAR-TASS (Moscow, Russia)
Posted on December 4, 2003
By Andrei Sitov
An Open World citizen diplomacy programme, set up by the US Congress in 1999 for the development of unofficial contacts with Russia, has been also applied to Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
The programme management has announced that the two countries' delegations are to visit the US before the end of the outgoing year.
A 50-member Ukrainian delegation is expected to include journalists, lawyers, teachers, and leaders of non-governmental organisations. High officials holding positions of up to deputy minister as well as businessmen will arrive from Uzbekistan among a 49-member delegation that will also include members of the general public and the press. They will break up into groups and visit various US cities.
More than 7,000 people from Russia visited the US in recent years under the Open World programme.
[Reprinted with Permission]
