As now Ukraine is a sovereign state, it establishes new relations with the countries throughout the world. It sets direct contacts with many foreign countries signing agreements and treaties. A lot of foreign Embassies have appealed in its capital lately. Ukraine is one of the founding members of the United Nations Organizations and participates in the work of many international organizations.
The topics of our radio and television talks are often Ukrainian —American relations and our viewpoint on the prospect of their development, and a wide range of other international issues.
A fundamental reshaping of foreign policy could only be effected on the basis of a strictly scientific and objective reassessment of the present-day realities. This evaluation the in-depth analysis of international affairs and the consideration of our national interests resulted in the new political thinking. Nowadays the political life is giving fresh grounds for the relations of mutual understanding between Ukraine and the USA, Great Britain, Canada and other English-speaking countries. The new political thinking, as seen by the Ukrainian leadership and by foreign experts, is not something frozen and immobile. It is exceptionally creative process, receptive to innovation.
The reason for the new type of relations is that all English-speaking countries want to see broader economic ties with Ukraine. The exchanging of opinions with the delegations from the English-speaking countries are generally marked by goodwill and intense interest.
It is not a secret, that everybody showed an excited interest listening to the American President's speech during his first visit to Ukraine. Politicians, journalists, businessmen, all ordinary people, students and even pupils were particularly impressed by his knowledge of Ukrainian poetry, when he recited some lines written by the famous Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko.
Taking into consideration the development in Ukraine, a lot of joint ventures have appeared recently in its cities and towns. A lot of delegations, businessmen, specialists and tourists from the English-speaking countries keep coming to Ukraine.
Nowadays the number of Ukrainians living abroad varies between 10 and 13 million. Most of them live outside the country on the territories of the former Soviet Union (7,767,000). The Ukrainian Diaspora is the strongest in Canada and the USA. In the USA, they number over a million, in Canada 530,000. Most of them (up to 90%) were bom in their country of residence.
In North America, the Ukrainian ethnic community at large formed as the result of three waves of emigration —at the turn of the 20th century, between World War I and World War II, and after the war.
There are ethnic Ukrainian communities in Latin America, mainly in Argentina (up to 160,000) and Brazil (some 100,000). Most of them came in between the world wars from Poland and Romania.
The youngest ethnic Ukrainian community is in Australia (some 34,000), formed after 1948.
In European countries, Ukrainians are registered as immigrants.