NATO initials preliminary agreement with Ukraine (06/08/97)

NATO initials preliminary agreement with Ukraine

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine and NATO achieved a preliminary agreement on a special partnership charter on May 29 at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Sintra, Portugal. Ukrainian officials believe the pact will keep the country out of a military gray zone as a buffer between the rest of Europe and Russia.

Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Hennadii Udovenko, who initialed the agreement along with NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana, was quoted by the Associated Press as commenting, "This is a very important day for Ukraine." All 16 NATO foreign ministers were present at the ceremony, including U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

The charter will give Ukraine a presence in NATO although not full membership. Ukraine will have expanded military relations with NATO Headquarters through a military liaison mission, and it will have the right to consult with the alliance on perceived military threats.

Ukraine has had limited military relations with the North Atlantic alliance by way of the Partnership for Peace program that NATO has promoted for all former countries of the Warsaw Pact and republics of the Soviet Union. Ukraine has actively participated in the PFP; today Ukraine has a representation both at NATO headquarters and the central command post in Brussels, regularly participates in NATO joint military exercises and is being encouraged to develop NATO-like military standards.

Secretary Volodymyr Horbulin of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council said at a press conference on May 30 that the charter also incorporates assurances that the leaders of the nuclear powers gave Ukraine in the Budapest Memorandum signed by the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China in December 1994, which provide for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of Ukraine's borders.

Mr. Horbulin explained that in accordance with the charter Ukraine and NATO will hold consultations at least twice a year within the framework of a commission comprising representatives of NATO and Ukraine.

Anton Buteiko, Ukraine's vice minister for foreign affairs who was in Sintra for the initialization of the agreement, said Ukraine received most of what it was looking for. "I must say that nearly all of Ukraine's positions are reflected in the final document," he pointed out.

The document is a political paper between the member-states of NATO and Ukraine. Although it carries the weight of the promises given within it by the leaders of those countries, it holds no international legal status as a treaty would.

Mr. Horbulin said Ukraine is satisfied with the security assurances it has received, but would have preferred the document held treaty status. "We would have liked the charter to have had de jure status," he explained. Then with a smile he added, "I would have liked the document to read that NATO defends Ukraine from all threats on life, but that is unrealistic. But we would have liked a defense agreement."

Because it is not a treaty, however, it does not need to be ratified by Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada, which Mr. Horbulin said he realized could have been a problem - albeit one he had been willing to face.

He also said the agreement differs from the one Russia signed with NATO on May 14. "It is different in character, substance and approach," said Mr. Horbulin. "The Ukraine-NATO document is one between entities that are forming and developing normal relations. The Russia-NATO document is one that delineates and smooths over points of friction."

Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma had initiated talks on a special agreement between Ukraine and NATO in June 1995 at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council in Brussels, at a time when Moscow and NATO were sparring over NATO's plans to expand eastward. Mr. Kuchma said at the time that Ukraine could end up as a buffer zone between two military camps.

He will sign the charter he conceived in a formal ceremony with NATO Secretary-General Solana on July 9 in Madrid , where Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic are expected to be invited to join the alliance. Mr. Buteiko said that in accordance with international norms changes can occur to a document between its initialization and formal signing, but he does not foresee this occurring.

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