Kuchma travels to Brussels, Moscow and Paris to spur foreign investment, expand foreign policy (12/12/99)

Kuchma travels to Brussels, Moscow and Paris to spur foreign investment, expand foreign policy

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma left for a six-day visit to foreign capitals on December 5, on what was his first trip outside Ukraine in his second term. In the span of a working week he met with the presidents of Russia, France and the United States, and the head of the European Union to spur foreign investment and further develop Ukraine's multi-vector foreign policy.

The three countries and the EU are keystones in Ukraine's oft-stated strategic policy of maintaining equal relations with the East and the West.

Mr. Kuchma first stopped briefly in Brussels to meet with Romano Prodi, the recently elected head of the European Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union. Discussions focused on the EU summit scheduled for Helsinki on December 10-11.

Ukraine has pushed for associate membership in the EU, which the organization has resisted, and has been waiting for a signal that it can join the EU once it has met tough economic and political criteria. The EU will consider a new policy for Ukraine at the summit, which most experts say will stop short of offering Ukraine any type of membership for the present.

In Brussels, Mr. Prodi said only that EU-Ukraine cooperation would increase. "We must discuss now how to deepen our relations and become great friends so as to work on the achievement of special goals," said the European Commission chairman, according to Interfax. "I believe that our future lies with clearer and deeper cooperation," he added.

President Kuchma said he was pleased with the rough draft he had seen of a document to be signed by European leaders during the summit. "This document will send a positive signal of cooperation," he said.

Finland, which currently holds the EU presidency, released the rough draft to reporters on December 3. According to Reuters, the document outlines the EU's plans to make Ukraine a free trade area in the future and assist it in joining the World Trade Organization. It states that it will encourage Ukraine to ratify new bilateral trade agreements with member-states, and urges it to improve its investment climate by fighting corruption, and proceeding with economic and administrative reforms.

After his brief Sunday evening session with Mr. Prodi, the Ukrainian president flew to Moscow, where he had a Monday morning meeting with ailing Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Mr. Yeltsin had been hospitalized with pneumonia in the days before the visit, which had led to doubts that the two leaders would meet. But the Russian president looked upbeat and energetic as he greeted his Ukrainian counterpart in the Kremlin on December 6, according to Moscow Television. The Russian press reported that Mr. Yeltsin had signed himself out of the hospital against doctors' orders especially to meet with his guest from Kyiv.

The meeting irked Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka because, only days before, the Kremlin, citing Mr. Yeltsin's illness, had canceled the scheduled signing ceremony that would have formally united Belarus and Russia. Mr. Lukashenka has put tremendous pressure on a wavering Moscow to formalize the agreement on reunion.

Kremlin officials said that Mr. Yeltsin felt it was important to meet with Mr. Kuchma on the eve of his trip to the United States, according to the Kyiv newspaper Den.

During their short encounter the two presidents settled on the restructuring of the balance of Ukraine's oil and gas debt to Russia - particularly the $500 million owed by the state-owned company Naftohaz Ukraina to the Russia's Gazprom. The details are to be worked out by an inter-governmental committee. A larger debt was resolved in late August when Kyiv agreed to turn over old TU-160 and TU-95MS strategic bombers.

The two presidents also agreed on joint production of three new planes, the AN-70, TU-334 and AN-140. "This is a priority over all of our plans," said Mr. Kuchma.

The Ukrainian president had said the day before the start of his trip that he is not satisfied with several aspects of relations between Russia and Ukraine. He emphasized that he believes the delineation of the Russia-Ukraine border, particularly the waters of the Azov Sea, was moving too slowly. He also expressed his disappointment that there has been little progress in returning Ukrainian citizens' the savings they had lost when the USSR fell apart.

"Paramount is the issue of the return of currency to Ukrainian citizens and legal entities that was frozen by the Soviet Foreign Economic Bank," said Mr. Kuchma.

Oleksander Martynenko, the president's press secretary said on August 6 that, during talks on the matter, the Russian side had expressed readiness to assist Ukraine in the return of its portion, although he did not clarify the reason for the hold-up.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin briefed Mr. Kuchma on the Chechnya conflict as well, before the president flew to Paris for an afternoon meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.

During his 24-hour stay in the City of Lights on December 6-7, President Kuchma held a series of talks with French politicians, bankers and businesspersons, including first and foremost with President Chirac.

The two met at the Elysian Palace on December 7, during which the French president signaled his support for Ukraine's eventual entry into the EU. Mr. Chirac assured Mr. Kuchma that during the EU Summit in Helsinki the member-states would adopt a strategy that would send "a political signal testifying to the EU's intention to broaden relations with Ukraine," Interfax-Ukraine quoted Mr. Kuchma's press secretary as saying.

The two presidents also agreed to the creation of a Forum of the Ukrainian-French Dialogue to coordinate the broadening of relations in the inter-governmental and public spheres. The forum will be co-chaired by Ivan Bilas, ex-head of President Kuchma's re-election committee and a former vice-prime minister, and Jean Claude Trichet, chairman of the Bank of France.

Meeting with the head of Frances' power utility conglomerate Electricité de France, later that day, Mr. Kuchma pressed his case for the need for additional financing to finish reconstruction of the concrete dome over the destroyed fourth block of the Chornobyl nuclear facility. Electricité de France has won the tender for part of the reconstruction effort under the Shelter Implementation Project.

At a luncheon hosted by the French Entrepreneurs Movement held earlier that day, the Ukrainian president had urged French business persons to initiate a second international donor conference to raise money for the closure of Chornobyl, similar to the one organized by U.S. Vice-President Al Gore in 1997.

That evening President Kuchma flew to Washington, for the next plenary session of the Kuchma-Gore Committee and meetings with President Bill Clinton, the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. business community.

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