Ukraine's seat on Security Council product of extensive lobbying effort (10/24/99)

Ukraine's seat on Security Council product of extensive lobbying effort

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Ukraine's success in obtaining a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council on October 14 came only after an extensive and effective lobbying effort by its New York-based diplomatic corps and Minister of Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk.

It took four rounds of voting and months of discussions with all the U.N. member-states for Ukraine to win the seat on the 15-member council, the most powerful U.N. body with responsibility for resolving international conflicts and disputes, and the authority to impose sanctions and dispatch international peacekeeping troops.

At a press conference in Kyiv on October 15 after his return from New York Foreign Affairs Minister Tarasyuk said Ukraine's election is "evidence of the authority, solid foundation and consistency of it foreign policy," which he called "well balanced and resourceful."

The United Nations Security Council has five permanent seats - held by the United States, Russia, France, Great Britain and China - and 10 non-permanent slots. Five of those 10 seats come up for election every year. This year, along with Ukraine, Mali, Tunisia, Jamaica and Bangladesh won non-permanent seats as representatives of their respective regions. The only contested spot was the East European region's seat, and the contenders were Ukraine and Slovakia.

Ukraine ultimately prevailed over Slovakia - but only after three earlier rounds of voting proved indecisive. Slovakia withdrew its nomination before the start of the fourth round after Ukraine came one vote short of the 115 needed to win the seat. Although some disagreement existed at that point on whether another round was needed, General Assembly President Theo-Ben Guribab called for the vote, which resulted in 158 nods in favor of Ukraine. Three countries voted against.

Ukraine's path to a seat on the Security Council began in 1986, when it applied for membership after having held the seat in 1984-1985. It was also a non-permanent member in 1948-1949, but in both those cases it was a part of the Soviet Union, and always followed the lead of the Soviet delegation.

Significantly, both the current and the last Ukrainian foreign affairs minister were part of the Ukrainian team that formulated the original application for membership.

"I am honored to say that I was part of the group that began the work in 1986," said Foreign Affairs Minister Tarasyuk.

Ukraine met with every one of the 188 members of the United Nations during the course of its two-year lobbying effort, touting its contributions to peacekeeping operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, and its mediation efforts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Armenia and the Trans-Dniester region of Moldova.

In the last few months, Mr. Tarasyuk underscored Ukraine's leadership in Central and Eastern Europe and the successful international summits held in Lviv in the spring and in Yalta in the summer of this year.

Ukraine's foreign affair minister also noted that he personally had met with 94 representatives of other U.N. delegations during a week's stay in New York during the September opening sessions of the General Assembly and that information packets had been printed in 78 languages.

Hennadii Udovenko, Mr. Tarasyuk's predecessor as foreign affairs minister, who held the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly in 1997-1998, also took part in the extensive lobbying effort on Ukraine's behalf.

At a press conference after he had returned from New York, Mr. Udovenko stated that Ukraine's membership in the U.N.'s most powerful body "would give balance to the Security Council, especially in matters related to this region of the world." [A press conference on the same topic was held on October 19 in New York by Ukraine's Ambassador to the U.N. Volodymyr Yelchenko.]

Meanwhile, Slovakia, which applied for membership in 1996, accented in its campaign that it had taken part in 13 peacekeeping operations and, unlike Ukraine, had never previously been a member of the Security Council. It also noted in a memo circulated among U.N. members that it had withdrawn its own candidate for the presidency of the General Assembly in September 1997 in favor of Mr. Udovenko.

After the vote on Security Council membership Ukraine moved quickly to reject any outside notions that the competition could lead to bitterness between the two neighboring countries. During his Kyiv press conference Mr. Tarasyuk said neither he nor his Slovak counterpart, Foreign Affairs Minister Eduard Kukan, harbor hard feelings.

"Whereas the seat on the Security Council is temporary, we are neighbors forever," said Mr. Tarasyuk.

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