Kuchma completes whirlwind working visit to Washington (02/25/96)

Kuchma completes whirlwind working visit to Washington

by Khristina Lew

WASHINGTON - In his second visit to the nation's capital since taking office in July 1994, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma won assurances from President Bill Clinton of continued U.S. support for Ukraine's economic reforms and up to $900 million in stand-by loans from the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF, which increased the amount of money available in loans to Ukraine from $1.5 billion to $1.7 billion, will begin disbursing an available $900 million for 1996 when Ukraine's Parliament passes a budget. The Parliament reviewed the budget in its first reading on February 16, and Ukrainian government officials expect it to be passed in April.

Michael Camdessus, executive director of the IMF, told reporters after his meeting with Mr. Kuchma at the Mayflower Hotel on February 20 that when the Parliament passes the budget, the IMF also is "ready to negotiate a program with Ukraine over three years, to the end of the century."

President Kuchma's private visit to Washington on February 20-22 at the invitation of Freedom House, the human-rights watchdog organization, can be characterized as moving past a general show of support from the United States and international financial institutions for Ukraine's one-and-a-half-year-old radical economic reform program to discussions of concrete proposals and projects.

During his February 21 working meetings at the White House with President Clinton, Vice-President Al Gore. Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Mr. Kuchma proposed that the United States and Ukraine create a joint commission on energy, chaired by Mr. Kuchma and Mr. Gore. President Clinton agreed to consider the proposal.

On February 22, Ukraine's minister for foreign economic relations and trade, Serhiy Osyka, announced that the United States raised its quota on import of Ukrainian wool coats from 1.2 million to 2 million, making Ukraine the third largest importer of wool coats to the United States. He said, however, that Congress has yet to approve U.S.-Ukrainian agreements on double taxation and investment.

During his meeting with Mr. Camdessus, Mr. Kuchma said the IMF executive director agreed to participate in preparing and consulting donor countries of Ukraine for a Paris donor conference tentatively scheduled for September.

While at the White House, President Kuchma also signed a Commercial Space Launch Services Agreement with Mr. Gore, which permits Ukraine commercial space launch capabilities. Mr. Kuchma invited the vice-president to visit Kyiv on the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster and requested that the Chornobyl issue be raised separately at the April 19-20 summit of G-7 leaders in Moscow.

Prior to their meeting, President Clinton praised Mr. Kuchma's effort to reform Ukraine's economy and political structure. "I admire the difficult and courageous steps that President Kuchma and Ukraine have taken toward democracy and economic reform. I know this has been a difficult time, and I want to see the world community, including the United States, do everything possible to support Ukraine in its effort to maintain democracy and to restore real prosperity and opportunity to the people," he said.

President Kuchma told reporters after his 45-minute meeting in the Oval Office that he informed President Clinton about the political and economic situation in Ukraine and changes that occurred in 1995. "The main goal of reform is to create an independent, democratic, rule of law state. We have made some progress. 1996 will be a turning point of our reform," he said. The two leaders also discussed Russian-Ukrainian relations, the Commonwealth of Independent States and NATO.

Mr. Kuchma countered allegations that the Ukrainian government was involved in the leasing of Antonov 32B's to Colombian drug smugglers. On February 20, the Los Angeles Times had reported that the Antonov aviation factory, which operates under the authority of Ukraine's Ministry of Machine Building and Defense Conversion, leased a small fleet of military cargo planes to drug traffickers.

The Ukrainian president said the planes are "owned by a company, not the state," and that the "Colombian side should take all the responsibility. This is international law." Mr. Kuchma said the issue was not discussed during his meeting with President Clinton, and that he would assign Ukraine's Security Service to look into the matter.

According to White House spokesman Michael McCurry, prior to his meeting with Mr. Kuchma, President Clinton called Russian President Boris Yeltsin to discuss Mr. Yeltsin's re-election plans, ratification of Start II, Bosnia and Mr. Clinton's April visit to Moscow.

During an afternoon meeting at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense William Perry told reporters that the implementation of the Trilateral Agreement signed by the United States, Russia and Ukraine in January 1994 is on schedule and that he expects Ukraine "will be non-nuclear by the summer." The defense secretary also said $200 million in Nunn-Lugar funds will be made available to Ukraine for conventional defense programs after it dispenses of its nuclear weapons.

President Kuchma pointed out that in exchange for voluntarily giving up its nuclear weapons, Ukraine was to receive nuclear fuel from Russia for its power plants. "The agreement called for seven years' worth of fuel for our nuclear plants, but we've gotten nothing from Russia," said the Ukrainian president. "I have raised this issue with Vice-President Gore because the United States is supposed to be the guarantor of Russia's commitment." Mr. Perry responded that "Ukraine has made the greatest decision of all three - to become non-nuclear - and the United States and Russia have also made a commitment. I believe we will be successful in meeting all commitments."

In the evening, President Kuchma was presented the 1996 Freedom Award by Freedom House President Adrian Karatnycky and Zbigniew Brzezinski, chairman of the American-Ukrainian Advisory Committee, at a banquet attended by 500 at the Mayflower Hotel.

During his three-day visit Mr. Kuchma also met with Mr. Christopher at the State Department to discuss European security and Russian relations, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, Mr. Rubin, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, representatives of 20 corporations at the Overseas Private Investment Corp., the American Bar Association and the editorial board of The Washington Post.

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