American-Ukranian Advisory Committee

The American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee first met on February 24, 1994, when representatives of the new private initiative with U.S. Deputy of State Strobe Talbott to "discuss recommendations for improving US-Ukranian relations." 

The American side of the new policy group was headed by Zbigniew Brzezinski and included Henry Kissinger, Frank Charles Carlucci III, George Soros, and Malcolm Forbes, Jr.. Visiting Ukrainian participants included Deputy Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk, Chairman of the Parliamentary Foreign Relation Commission Dmytro Pavlychko, and former Defense Minister Kostantyn Morozov.

Energy independence
In May 1994, the Center for Security Policy wrote that the Advisory Committee urged President Bill Clinton to "Promote Energy Independence":

On May 4, 1994, the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee -- chaired by former President James Earl Carter, Jr., National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, and including such luminaries as Henry Kissinger, George Soros, Gen. John R. Galvin and Malcolm Forbes, Jr. (recipient of the Center for Security Policy's 1993 "Keeper of the Flame" award) -- sent an extraordinary and highly relevant letter to President William Jefferson Clinton. It expressed, among other concerns, unease about Ukrainian dependence on Russian energy supplies.

The Committee specifically recommended that the upcoming G-7 Economic Summit in Naples, Italy take steps aimed at providing "assistance to promote energy independence." It cites as a precedent for accelerating the development of alternative, secure sources of energy supply for Ukraine the International Energy Agency Agreement of May 1983, a landmark accord resulting from the Reagan Administration's unsuccessful anti-pipeline diplomacy and Poland-related sanctions.

SourceWatch resources

 * Pipelineistan
 * Russia's oil industry