Tarasyuk, Albright sign memoranda on rocket technology (10/10/99)

Tarasyuk, Albright sign memoranda on rocket technology

Eastern Economist

KYIV - The United States and Ukraine reached agreement on September 29 on the protection of sensitive Ukrainian rocket technology used to launch U.S. commercial satellites as part of the multi-national Sea Launch project.

The agreement, which was signed in Washington by Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk, was initiated at the first meeting of the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission in 1997. It lays out procedures to ensure that U.S. and Ukrainian cooperation is consistent with both countries' non-proliferation commitments.

The fact sheet on the agreement notes the following:

At the first U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission meeting in May 1997, Vice-President Al Gore initiated cooperation with Ukraine in the important and mutually beneficial civil aerospace sector. Secretary Albright's visit to Kyiv in March 1998 marked the beginning of implementation of that cooperation.

The Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Ukraine on Technology Safeguards Associated with Ukrainian Launch Vehicles, Missile Equipment and Technical Data for the "Sea Launch" Program (RTSA) signed by Secretary Albright and Foreign Minister Tarasyuk provides protection for sensitive, Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR)-controlled Ukrainian rocket technology used in the commercial Sea Launch project. Sea Launch is a multinational project using Ukrainian and Russian rocket stages to launch U.S. commercial satellites from a Norwegian-built seaborne platform. The RTSA lays out procedures that will ensure cooperation is consistent with both countries' non-proliferation commitments.

Together with the Satellite Technology Safeguard Agreement signed by the secretary of state in Kyiv in March of 1998 to protect sensitive U.S. satellite technologies, the RTSA will ensure that lucrative cooperation between the United States and Ukraine also furthers the interests of non-proliferation. The RTSA, along with the Memorandum of Understanding Concerning Cooperation in the Aerospace Sector (also signed on September 29), promotes non-proliferation and benefits the security goals of both countries, while increasing economically valuable opportunities in the space sector.

Included on the agenda of the seventh meeting of the Kuchma-Gore Committee's subgroup on economic cooperation were issues of macroeconomic and financial policy, structural reforms and the energy sector. The investment climate in Ukraine and the development of the private sector also were discussed.

Another talking point was implementation of the Kharkiv initiative, which aims to assist the economy of Kharkiv Oblast to compensate partly for the loss of the contract in May 1998 by Kharkiv-based Turboatom to provide turbines for the construction of a nuclear power station in Bushehr, Iran.

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