Ambassador Shcherbak warns against limiting NATO expansion (05/24/98)

Ambassador Shcherbak warns against limiting NATO expansion

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Yuri Shcherbak says that while Ukraine does not aspire to join NATO today, one should not set "red lines" to future NATO expansion that would exclude Ukraine from future membership.

The ambassador was responding to a question about Russian President Yeltsin's interview in a British newspaper in which he stated that there was a "red line" to NATO expansion.

(Asked by The Guardian reporter what steps Russia would take if Ukraine and the Baltic states were invited to join NATO, Mr. Yeltsin said he hoped the West would be "realistic" enough not to do it. "In NATO expansion, there is a red line for Russia which should not be crossed," Mr. Yeltsin is quoted as saying in the May 15 Guardian.)

"I think we should be calm in discussing any 'red line' and its future movement," Ambassador Shcherbak said in an interview with The Ukrainian Weekly later that same day.

"I would point out that three years ago such a 'red line' ran closer to Berlin than to Warsaw," he said. "Things change and policies change, as do the structures themselves."

In the interview, Mr. Shcherbak also responded to questions about Foreign Minister Borys Tarasiuk's recent statement concerning Ukraine's continued interest in former Soviet foreign assets, current priorities in Ukraine-U.S. relations and India's nuclear weapons tests.

Ambassador Shcherbak said that Ukraine's foreign policy orientation has been clearly defined and enunciated.

"This orientation is toward Europe - the integration of Ukraine into European structures," he said. This includes joining the European Union within the next decade or two and its inclusion into European security structures.

NATO, which now plays a key role in Europe's security system, is changing and will continue to transform itself, Mr. Shcherbak said. "One simply cannot judge today's NATO through the Cold War prism of the 1950s and 1960s."

"Ukraine does not need NATO membership right now," he said. "It isn't ready for it - neither technically nor psychologically." Indeed, legally Ukraine cannot join because of its declared status as non-bloc nation, which cannot be changed overnight.

"So I wouldn't over-dramatize the NATO issue," Mr. Shcherbak said. "We are calm in our approach to NATO. We see it as an alliance of democratic nations with peaceful intentions, as one of the key elements of security in Europe."

He said that Ukraine will continue to work with its neighbors, including Russia, as Russia, for its part, works and cooperates with NATO and also strives to become a part of the European Union.

Asked to expand on Minister Tarasiuk's recent statement that Ukraine's claim to its share of the former Soviet Union's property abroad "has not been taken off the agenda," Mr. Shcherbak said that while the Ukrainian government agreed - "possibly unwisely" - in 1993 to the so-called "zero option," it was never ratified by the Verkhovna Rada. Under the "zero option" agreement, Russia alone would inherit both the assets and liabilities of the former USSR.

Mr. Shcherbak noted that at the same time there was also an agreement reached that Ukraine would get 35 foreign Soviet properties. "We have yet to receive them, and this issue also remains outstanding," he added.

Ukraine has never received a report from Moscow on Soviet assets, and, therefore, cannot make an informed decision about what its 16 percent share of the assets would be as compare to its share of the liabilities, he said.

Ambassador Shcherbak said that the priority item on the U.S.-Ukraine agenda now is the realization of market reforms in the Ukrainian economy.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's recent certification that Ukraine had made significant progress in resolving American investors' problems, "does not mean that everything is all right," he said. "There are still many problems - a few difficult problems that have not been resolved - but there is good will to have them resolved," he added

"Above all, however, the investment climate must be improved not only for these few - and for the most part, small - companies, but on a more fundamental level, with new legislation and the easing of the tax burden," he said. This is expected to be the focus of the next Kuchma-Gore Bi-national Commission meeting at the end of July in Kyiv, he added.

Discussing President Kuchma's May 12 "state of the nation address," Mr. Shcherbak said it was not confrontational but conciliatory, calling for a cooperative approach to instituting the reforms needed to improve the lives of the people.

Ambassador Shcherbak expressed the hope that the new deputies would subordinate their partisan leanings to the needs of the country.

Even though the International Monetary Fund suspended its stand-by credits to Ukraine because of its ballooning national budget deficit, Mr. Shcherbak said the government now feels it can adhere to the stringent measures needed to obtain the IMF's multi-billion-dollar Extended Fund Facility credits and that an agreement with the IMF may be reached "within a month or two."

Asked to comment on India's recent underground nuclear tests, Mr. Shcherbak said that Ukraine sees it as a "very serious development" and condemns it.

"It may set off a dangerous nuclear chain reaction, threatening the peace not only in eastern Asia but in other parts of the world as well, where other potential nuclear countries might begin testing their own weapons as a demonstration of power," he said.

"Ukraine today has the undeniable moral authority - unique in this world - to raise its voice in this matter, with a clear conscience and moral credentials," he said. "We suffered Chornobyl and we voluntarily gave up our nuclear weapons."

"Today we can affirm that the way to achieve a country's greatness is through developing its own economic potential and friendly relations with its neighbors - and not through nuclear explosions," he stressed.