EDITORIAL: Ukraine stays the course (01/28/96)

EDITORIAL

Ukraine stays the course

President Leonid Kuchma was right in February 1995 when he said the Commonwealth of Independent States is an "amorphous structure." Nothing brings that home more clearly than the fact that the concept of the CIS differs greatly in the minds of two presidents: Yeltsin and Kuchma.

President Boris Yeltsin sees integration as the principal goal of the Commonwealth, indeed, he sees integration as "salvation" (the question is for whom). He spoke at the just concluded CIS summit of the Commonwealth's "tendency toward voluntary integration." As of today, he reported that three states, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan, are ready for integration as all the necessary conditions already exist; three others, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, are almost ready to enter into this integration.

The Russian president also noted Ukraine's recalcitrance: "Ukraine thus far does not want integration. It does not want it although I tried to persuade - very insistently tried to persuade - Kuchma. The integration of Russia and Ukraine is salvation for both states from the problems that face us today," he underlined.

A year ago, President Yeltsin was re-elected to serve as chairman of the CIS Council of Heads of State to shore up his position at home via a show of support from other CIS leaders. Last week the Russian president was elected for the third time to that post - this time with a view toward the upcoming presidential elections and his weakening position in Russia as he plods along from crisis to crisis. Thus, the elder brother has held on to what was supposed to be a rotating chairmanship (with countries serving in alphabetical order).

It should be noted that, from the very get-go, the three founding members of the CIS had different visions of that body. For Ukraine, the CIS was a mechanism for what observers described as a "civilized divorce process"; it was a "community," not a supra-national structure. Its two Slavic brothers, Russia and Belarus, meanwhile, saw the CIS as a union to replace the USSR, complete with all appropriate structures, charters, etc.

Since the CIS's founding in December 1991, Ukraine has refused to sign the CIS Charter, rejected the notion that the CIS should have a coordinated foreign policy, declined to join any collective security system, and has postponed accession to the CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly. Thus, Ukraine is only an associate member of the body and has observer status in the IPA.

President Kuchma sees the CIS as a consultative body based on the fundamental principle that all members are partners with equal rights. He decidedly does not see it as an international organization subject to international law.

At the Minsk summit on May 26, 1995, President Kuchma emphasized: "Our course aims to cooperate with the CIS, but this cooperation should not damage Ukraine's sovereignty. Ukraine is going to pursue independent foreign and foreign economic relations."

The Ukrainian president has said on more than one occasion that he sees the Commonwealth as useful in economic relations and exchanges, but that political and military questions should be governed by the most practical method, that is, via bilateral accords. To his credit, Ukraine's chief executive has repeatedly underlined that Ukraine will act in its own national interests. Those interests, President Kuchma has demonstrated, are not served by integration with the CIS.

Four years after its creation in Minsk, the Commonwealth of Independent States may have a flag and an emblem that appear to give it more status as an international body, but it still is an "amorphous structure" with a nebulous future. Ukraine is correct to stay the course in resisting complete integration.

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