Russian Duma ratifies long-awaited treaty on friendship and cooperation with Ukraine (01/03/99)

Russian Duma ratifies long-awaited treaty on friendship and cooperation with Ukraine

by Pavel Polityuk
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - The government of Ukraine has welcomed Russia's ratification of a basic treaty on friendship and cooperation between the two former Soviet republics, saying it would improve bilateral relations.

Russia's State Duma, the lower house of Parliament, on December 25 ratified the long-stalled treaty with Ukraine despite political disagreements and worries that this Slavic neighbor is forming close ties with NATO.

After a heated debate, the Duma voted 243-30 to ratify the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership signed in May 1997 by Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Boris Yeltsin of Russia. The treaty had been ratified in January 1998 by the Verkhovna Rada.

The reaction of officials in Kyiv was prompt, and positive.

"The ratification of the treaty is of extraordinary importance for relations between our two countries, because it has secured Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity," said Valerii Rylach, vice-chairman of the Russia department at Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Russia and Ukraine, together with Belarus, played a key role in dissolving the Soviet Union in December 1991, but bitter rows over trade, the Soviet-era Black Sea Fleet and the status of its naval base in Sevastopol, and the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine had soured bilateral relations.

President Kuchma welcomed the treaty's ratification. "The ratification is advantageous not only for Ukraine, but Russia as well," the Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted the president as saying.

"We have made a big step toward each other, throwing away all that is unnecessary," the ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko as saying. "I think for many citizens of Ukraine and Russia a long-awaited dream has come true," he added.

But Ukrainian officials said Russian deputies had been delaying the ratification for too long, causing fears in Kyiv that relations between the two countries could be strained further.

"It is not good that our partner and neighbor delayed the ratification for so long," Mr. Rylach said.

Russian lawmakers had said they would be ready to approve the friendship treaty only after the Ukrainian side had ratified several agreements regarding the status of the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet.

A day before the friendship treaty was signed, Ukraine's and Russia's prime ministers had also signed several special documents that outline major principles of the Black Sea Fleet's division between two Black Sea countries.

According to the documents, the Russian fleet will be permitted to use several bases in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol for the next 20 years, though the Constitution of Ukraine prohibits the basing of any foreign forces on Ukraine's territory.

The Ukrainian Parliament had declined to approve the fleet agreements and this led Russian deputies to postpone ratification of the friendship treaty.

Russian nationalists have also questioned Ukraine's rights to the predominantly Russian-populated Crimean peninsula, a former province of Russia formally signed over to Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev.

Russia, which dreads the prospect of any ex-Soviet republic joining NATO, has also been alarmed by Ukraine's progress in ties with the Western alliance.

"Ukraine does not now have a plan to join the alliance, but we are an independent country and we have full rights to form our own foreign relationships with any country or organization," Mr. Rylach said.

Members of Communist factions in both the Ukrainian and Russian Parliaments were extremely pleased about the ratification. Russian Communists in the Duma called the ratification a "new stage in the development of Russo-Ukrainian relations."

In a statement issued on December 28, the Duma's Communist faction said the ratified treaty will create favorable opportunities for the development of cooperation on the basis of the economic, defense, scientific, technical and cultural potential accumulated by the people of the two countries.

At the same time, however, Russian Communists urged the Ukrainian Parliament to do everything necessary to create conditions for the normal functioning of Russia's Black Sea Fleet on Ukrainian territory, and to ensure the rights and cultural and humanitarian needs of ethnic Russians.

Independent analysts in Ukraine said the months-long delay in the treaty's ratification showed that Moscow still wanted to dominate the bilateral relationship.

"Russia ratified the treaty, but a year after Ukraine did so, demonstrating to Kyiv that the treaty is more important for Ukraine than to Russia," commented Serhii Naboka of the Respublika news service.

Mr. Naboka also said Russia had agreed to ratify the bilateral friendship treaty only after Kyiv promised to join the Russian-led Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

"I am sure nothing will change for Ukraine after the ratification, but, unfortunately, we again have showed Russia that Ukraine is dependent on its northern neighbor," said Mr. Naboka.

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