Turning the pages back... January 18, 1998 (01/16/00)

Turning the pages back...

January 18, 1998

Two years ago on January 18, The Ukrainian Weekly reported on the ratification by the Verkhovna Rada of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with the Russian Federation.

Ukraine's lawmakers voted 317-27 on January 14, 1998, to approve the pact, which created new conditions for a relationship with Ukraine's largest economic partner. Foreign Affairs Minister Hennadii Udovenko presented the document to lawmakers for their approval and urged them to ratify the treaty, saying it will build a legal base for economic cooperation with Russia, which accounts for 47 percent of Ukraine's exports.

Olexsander Razumkov, vice-chairman of Ukraine's Security and Defense Council, said "The treaty is very important for us. We have very strong economic interaction with Russia, and economic cooperation without a political base is impossible."

The political treaty had been signed by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on May 31, 1997, after more than five years of discussion between the neighboring nations' politicians. Ever since Ukraine became independent in 1991, its leaders had worked with Russia to sign an agreement on friendship, but President Yeltsin had postponed his visit six times, citing the unresolved dispute over the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet and particularly the status of its main base.

"The treaty means the affirmation of the territorial integrity and inviolability of borders of Ukraine and Russia, and in this way all questions about territorial ownership of Sevastopol and Crimea are removed," Ukrainian Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko told lawmakers before the vote.

The signing of several Black Sea Fleet agreements days before Presidents Yeltsin and Kuchma signed the big treaty had set the stage for the final document, but some Ukrainian lawmakers charged President Kuchma and his government with making a lot of concessions during talks with Russia, including allowing Russian forces to remain on Ukrainian land in Crimea.

The ratification of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership with Russia was seen as only the first step in normalizing relations between the two most powerful republics of the former Soviet Union. Volodymyr Horbulin, secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, noted that ratification of the treaty was a huge diplomatic step forward, while adding that other facets of the Ukrainian-Russian relationship will demand similar efforts.

Source: "Verkhovna Rada ratifies treaty with Russia, setting the stage for a new relationship" by Pavlo Politiuk, The Ukrainian Weekly, January 18, 1998 (Vol. LXVI, No 3).

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