Netanyahu in Kyiv to promote Israel-Ukraine relations (03/28/99)

Netanyahu in Kyiv to promote Israel-Ukraine relations

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma signed a memorandum of mutual understanding in Kyiv on March 21 that they hope will strengthen the ties between the two countries and help invigorate an exchange of capital investment.

"The Ukrainian government pays great attention to the deepening and broadening of cooperation with Israel," President Kuchma told a press conference after the signing ceremony at the Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv.

Mr. Netanyahu spent less than seven hours in Kyiv on his way to Moscow, where he was to meet with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, but it was sufficient time to lay the groundwork for increased cooperation between the two countries.

In Ukraine's capital Mr. Netanyahu met with both the Ukrainian president and Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko, visited with leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine and laid flowers before the menorah memorial at Babyn Yar, where thousands of Jews and others were exterminated after Hitler's Nazi war machine overran Kyiv.

It was the first visit to Ukraine by an Israeli government leader since the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin traveled here in 1997.

A primary aim of the two sides during the current visit was to stimulate bilateral economic cooperation.

Mr. Netanyahu said at his press conference in Kyiv that after more talks, which would assure that Israeli business capital would not be squandered, investment money would begin to arrive.

"A great future is awaiting Ukraine," said the Israeli prime minister.

In 1998 commodity turnover between the two countries reached $174 million, a 39 percent rise from the previous year. Ukraine's exports to Israel grew to $132 million, chiefly in ferrous and non-ferrous metals, chemicals and agricultural products.

In 1998 Israel sold Ukraine mostly agricultural goods, chiefly citrus products, as well as machinery. By the end of 1998 approximately 120 Israeli companies had invested some $12.6 million into the Ukrainian economy.

During his meeting with Mr. Pustovoitenko the Israeli prime minister emphasized that this country's businessmen also are prepared to invest in Ukrainian companies and introduce new technologies.

Mr. Pustovoitenko and Mr. Netanyahu discussed closer ties in education and culture as well. The Ukrainian prime minister underscored that Ukraine is ready to further aid the spiritual and cultural development of the Jewish population in Ukraine.

During the Soviet era, Jewish synagogues and cultural centers were routinely shut down and many Jews felt they were ostracized and even persecuted because of their ethnicity. In the 1970s the Jewish population slowly began to leave the Soviet Union, including Ukraine, which turned into a mass exodus after Ukraine declared independence.

President Kuchma told the Mariinsky Palace press conference that today the government is doing everything possible so that all the diverse ethnic groups of Ukraine "would view Ukraine as their homeland."

Nonetheless, he gave assurance that no one would hinder any Jewish person's desire to leave the country for Israel and that he would personally take charge if barriers arose.

"If such cases are registered, I am prepared to intervene in order to cross the 't's and dot the 'i's," said President Kuchma.

Interfax-Ukraine reported that at a meeting between the countries' foreign ministers, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk said he and his Israeli counterpart, Ariel Sharon, had reached agreement on "significant invigoration of political contacts" and will hold regular consultations from now on.

Mr. Tarasyuk also disclosed that the two sides had signed a document on cooperation in the military-technical field, which the Ukrainian foreign affairs minister called "of a general character," although he would not give specifics.

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