Udovenko criticizes G-7 for pace of aid delivery (07/06/97)

Udovenko criticizes G-7 for pace of aid delivery

by Irene Jarosewich

UNITED NATIONS - The minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine, Hennadii Udovenko, recently criticized the Group of Seven (G-7) countries for the slow pace with which the promised financial assistance to aid Ukraine in the decommissioning of the Chornobyl nuclear power station is being delivered.

"I would like to take this opportunity to say," Mr. Udovenko told a press briefing at the United Nations on June 26, "that the G-7 does not fulfill its obligation in connection with the Chornobyl nuclear power station ... I mean both financial and technical assistance."

Mr. Udovenko echoed the words of Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma, who earlier in the week, in his address at the special session of the United Nations dedicated to issues of the environment, stated that Ukraine expects that the G-7 countries will live up to their commitments to help with the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster.

Over the last several years, the G-7 countries have promised more than $3 billion in loans and credits to decommission the power plant, site of the world's worst nuclear disaster in 1986, clean up the contamination around the destroyed reactor, and complete additional power stations. The G-7 countries, as well as the European Union, insisted that Ukraine close Chornobyl to reduce the potential environmental threat, and recognized that the resolution of Chornobyl-related problems is an international responsibility. The most recent promise of $300 million came at the G-7 summit in Denver on June 20-22.

However, despite repeated promises, Ukraine has seen very little of the aid. Several weeks ago, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which finances many G-7 projects, refused to release funds to Ukraine for the completion of two nuclear power stations that would compensate for the loss of energy resulting from the shut down of Chornobyl. According to the EBRD, the cost estimate to bring the plants on line were too high, even though these estimates were developed with technical assistance from Western experts.

"As far as the Chornobyl nuclear power station, we are going to fulfill our political commitments [to close the station] by the year 2000 ... [however] we cannot cope with the close up of Chornobyl without financial help, given our financial situation. We deal, and continue to deal, with these problems alone ... we pay 10 percent to 12 percent of our annual budget to Chornobyl ... with each year, the situation is not improving, it is deteriorating," said the foreign affairs minister.

According to Mr. Udovenko, minimizing the hazardous environmental situation is the main problem at Chornobyl. This includes the rebuilding and repair of the sarcophagus, and the removal of almost 200 tons of nuclear fuel still inside the damaged reactor.

"Chornobyl has become an attractive area of study," he continued. "Recently [Ukraine's] president established an international research center at which international experts will study the consequences of a situation like Chornobyl and come to their own conclusions."

In addition to commenting on the issues related to Chornobyl, Mr. Udovenko announced that he has been unanimously nominated by the Eastern Europe Group of the United Nations to be the next president of the U.N. General Assembly. The 15 republics of the former Soviet Union, five new countries that once made up the former Yugoslavia, as well as the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland and Albania comprise the Eastern Europe Group that nominated Mr. Udovenko for the one year term.

On an annually rotating basis, one of the several country groups in the United Nations nominates a sole candidate to be assembly president. The candidate is then routinely elected by the full assembly at its first meeting of the new session, the third Tuesday in September. This year, the 52nd session, will begin September 16.

Mr. Udovenko explained that after his nomination was official, he informed President Kuchma that he will continue to serve as Ukraine's foreign affairs minister as he served in the U.N. post. In previous years, presidents of the General Assembly have often simultaneously served as the foreign ministers of their country.

Commenting on the recent foreign policy successes of Ukraine, which Western foreign policy analysts have praised as "brilliant" and the "miracle month of May" for Ukraine, Mr. Udovenko stated that the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid gave negotiators impetus to complete a range of bilateral and multilateral meetings and agreements with Belarus, Moldova, Transdnistria, Poland, Romania and Russia and the U.S.

Ukraine is very satisfied with the Charter on a Distinctive NATO-Ukraine Partnership, and according to Mr. Udovenko, "the Ukraine-NATO, the Russia-NATO and the NATO enlargement agreements will be the three very important, modern pillars upon which over-all European security into the next century can be established."

Mr. Udovenko noted that having attained many of the major foreign policy goals towards which Ukraine has been working for the past five years, the government will now concentrate on the "economization" of its foreign policy to encourage foreign investment.

"We have achieved great things on the macro level, reduced inflation from 1000 percent in 1994 to between 10 percent to 12 percent this year ... introduced a stable national currency ... and we have made great progress in the area of privatization. Ownership has been transferred from the state to the workers, yet the change in ownership did not bring in capital ... we must re-structure our industries, with particular reference to the energy sector ... to bring in foreign investment to help end our deep economic crisis," stated Mr. Udovenko.

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