Udovenko resigns as foreign minister (04/19/98)

Udovenko resigns as foreign minister

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Hennadii Udovenko resigned his post on April 9 to take a seat in the Verkhovna Rada, but will stay on as the president of the United Nations General Assembly.

His is the first official resignation of a Cabinet official who won a parliamentary seat in the March 29 Verkhovna Rada elections. Seven of 10 Cabinet ministers who ran won seats in the elections. They must now choose whether to become national deputies or remain Cabinet ministers.

Ever since Mr. Udovenko, a career diplomat, decided he would campaign for a seat in Ukraine's Parliament on the slate of the Rukh Party, he had asserted that if elected to the legislature he would resign from the Cabinet of Ministers.

Article 78 of Ukraine's Constitution, which has been a subject of some controversy, states that government officials cannot concurrently hold a parliamentary seat. However, several Cabinet ministers, including two prime ministers in the Kuchma administration, have done so.

The other ministers who must now decide between a legislative seat and an executive post include Minister of the Economy Viktor Suslov, a member of the Socialist Party; Minister of Transportation Valerii Cherep and Minister of the Environment Yurii Kostenko, both of the Rukh Party; as well as Minister of Science and Technology Volodymyr Semynozhenko, an independent.

Mr. Semynozhenko's resignation had been announced by Presidential Chief of Staff Yevhen Kushniarov earlier, but the minister said he was retaining his post until at least the first session of the new Verkhovna Rada.

Mr. Udovenko, 67, who is also the president of the current session of the U.N. General Assembly, has refrained from official comment on his resignation, which was submitted to President Leonid Kuchma. However, an unidentified source close to Mr. Udovenko told the Reuters news service he will continue as chairman of the General Assembly through the end of his term in September.

Mr. Udovenko was appointed Ukraine's second minister of foreign affairs in August 1994 by the newly elected President Kuchma. He had served as ambassador to Poland during the Kravchuk administration. While Ukraine was still under the Soviet Union, he served as the Ukrainian SSR ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Udovenko's name has circulated as a possible moderate candidate to chair the Verkhovna Rada. But, in an interview with the Kyiv daily Den, he said he has no current ambitions for a leadership post in the Parliament. "It is too early to discuss that. Right now there will be enough work for me as a regular deputy," said Mr. Udovenko.

Others being mentioned as candidates for the Parliament chairmanship include the current chairman, Oleksander Moroz, leader of the Socialist Party; Vyacheslav Chornovil, head of the Rukh Party; Yevhen Marchuk, leader of the Social Democrats Party - United and former prime minister; and Petro Symonenko, chairman of the Communist Party of Ukraine.

Mr. Udovenko remained above the fray of political infighting that consumed many Cabinet members in the Kuchma administration. He worked closely with the president in developing Ukraine's strategic partnership with the United States. During his tenure as foreign affairs minister Ukraine signed treaties of friendship and cooperation with all of its neighbors, most notably Russia, and also a charter on a distinctive partnership with NATO.

There is a short list ofndence, Ukraine ucceed Mr. Udovenko. In fact, he told the Den newspaper that "the appointment has been made." Most prominently mentioned as his successor is Borys Tarasiuk, currently the ambassador to the Benelux countries and Ukraine's representative to NATO, which is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. According to Den, Mr. Tarasiuk has already been appointed, but the formal announcement has yet to be made.

The 49-year-old diplomat, was responsible for negotiating Ukraine's nuclear disarmament during the Kravchuk administration, which he served as vice minister of foreign affairs under Minister Anatolii Zlenko.

President Kuchma's press secretary, Oleksander Maidannyk, said on April 14 that the new foreign affairs minister could be announced as early as April 17.