Ukraine and NATO sign partnership charter (07/13/97)

Ukraine and NATO sign partnership charter

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine and NATO entered into a historic special relationship on July 9 when President Leonid Kuchma and the leaders of the 16 NATO countries signed the "Charter on a Distinctive Partnership between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Ukraine."

It was a "day for Ukraine," said Anton Buteiko, Ukraine's vice minister for foreign affairs, speaking at a press conference in Kyiv. "I cannot remember a day in history when all the political leaders of Europe, the United States and Canada spoke extensively only about Ukraine," explained Mr. Buteiko, who played a key role in the negotiations that led to the charter.

The signing occurred at the summit in Madrid, where the prime ministers and presidents of the NATO countries gathered on July 8-9 for their annual consultations. It followed by a day the equally historic invitation to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic to become full NATO members.

President Kuchma, speaking to Ukrainian reporters upon his arrival in Madrid, said "Ukraine has obtained what it wanted," according to Interfax-Ukraine.

But the four-page document does not give Ukraine military treaty status with NATO, which Ukraine had originally pushed for. It does, however, carry the status of a politically legal document much like the Helsinki Accords, signed by 35 countries in August 1975 to monitor human rights enforcement. "The charter makes the 16 subjects that signed it responsible for its enforcement," explained Mr. Buteiko. He also said that document will not need ratification by any Parliament.

The charter re-emphasizes the obligations and commitments undertaken by the NATO countries and Ukraine in the United Nations Charter, the Helsinki Final Act and by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which arose from the Helsinki Accords. Most notably, the document reads that NATO members and Ukraine recognize that "the security of all states in the OSCE area are indivisible, that no state should pursue its security at the expense of that of another state."

The charter also mentions the Budapest Accord of 1994, in which NATO members, the United States, the United Kingdom and France, along with Russia, gave Ukraine security assurances against nuclear attack. However, the charter does not offer such assurances from NATO itself.

Furthermore, the charter assures Ukraine that NATO will not position nuclear weapons on the territories of its new members. In addition, there are various enumerations of specific means and areas of consultation and cooperation, including a provision that Ukraine will have a military liaison mission as part of the Ukrainian mission in Brussels, where NATO has its headquarters.

After the signing ceremony, President Kuchma explained that the most important item in the charter, in his opinion, is NATO's explicit recognition of Ukraine as a Central-Eastern European nation. "This is a key issue of the document," he said, according to Interfax-Ukraine. The charter wording reads: "... Noting NATO's positive role in maintaining peace ... and its openness for cooperation with the new democracies of Central and Eastern Europe, an inseparable part of which is Ukraine."

Later that day President Kuchma expounded on what such recognition meant. "As President Jacques Chirac told me," he said, " 'We cannot allow anything to happen to Ukraine. We will defend it both by political and economic methods.' "

All 16 leaders of NATO as well as NATO Secretary General Javier Solana spoke at the charter signing, recognizing Ukraine's integral role in maintaining security in Europe and urging Ukraine to continue its economic reform effort. All were generous with praise in their statements.

According to Interfax-Ukraine, Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chrétien noted that more than 1 million Canadians are ethnically Ukrainian, and that Canada was the first country to recognize an independent Ukraine. He said that what now needs to be done in Ukraine-NATO relations is to create the machinery for consultations. "Ukraine has strengthened her position in the Euro-Atlantic space and presents today a cornerstone of security," said Mr. Chrétien.

France's President Jacques Chirac said, "We are holding our hand out to a new partner," and praised Ukraine's peacekeeping effort in Bosnia.

Helmut Kohl, chancellor of Germany, expressed support for Ukraine's reform efforts and said the NATO-Ukraine partnership has a greater role to play in the effort to create a European security structure.

Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain said the accord gives Ukraine the full right to completely integrate itself into all European structures. "Kyiv was a European city for many years," he added.

Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi emphasized that "the common objective of Ukraine and NATO is to no longer be divided."

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Asnar underscored that the signing of the document "would have been impossible without the political and economic reforms in Ukraine."

And U.S. President Bill Clinton applauded the recent agreements between Ukraine and its neighbors, Russia, Poland and Romania.

President Kuchma met one-on-one with most of the leaders of the NATO countries, including President Clinton during the two-day summit.

He did not meet with President Boris Yeltsin or Prime Minster Viktor Chernomyrdin because the Russian leaders decided not to attend the summit to protest NATO's expansion. Russia signed its own special charter with NATO in May.

However, President Yeltsin voiced his support for the Ukraine-NATO agreement when he signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation with Ukraine in June.

Even Russia's often anti-Ukrainian Parliament expressed support for the Madrid accord, although in a rather convoluted manner. According to Interfax-Ukraine, on July 9, the chairman of the Russian State Duma, Gennadii Selezne, said: "I believe it correct that Ukraine has secured such an agreement. It is a sovereign state beleaguered by the NATO countries, and it must take care of its security." He said the accord would not change relations between Ukraine and Russia.

But in Ukraine on July 8, scores of Communists signed a petition criticizing the Ukraine-NATO charter. National Deputy Yevhen Marmazov, who chairs the "Ukraine Outside NATO" group in the Verkhovna Rada said they were protesting the signing of the agreement and "expressing their disagreement and indignation with the fact that the decision has been made without previous consultations with the Parliament. At the July 8 daily session of the Verkhovna Rada, Communist deputies proposed that discussion take place that day on the value and need for the charter, which was voted down by legislators.

Before the vote, Communist Party leader Petro Symonenko read a statement that said, "One of the most important provisions of the Declaration of Ukraine's State Sovereignty, proclaiming her non-alignment, neutrality and nuclear-free status, is canceled by a stroke of the pen." It continues, "Obviously, under this pretext, NATO has reserved for itself the right to meddle in Ukraine's internal affairs."

The following day the Communist faction refused to register; thus, a quorum was not attained and that day's session was canceled.

In Madrid, Ukraine also signed on to the newly created Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, The council is the representative body of the 28 member-countries of the Partnership for Peace program. The program provides for enhanced relations between former Warsaw Pact countries and the ex-republics of the Soviet Union with NATO through exchanges of information, common military maneuvers and the standardization of military specifications.

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