Kuchma's trip to Mideast mixes economics with international policy (04/28/02)

Kuchma's trip to Mideast mixes economics with international policy

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - President Leonid Kuchma wound up a four-day swing through the Middle East on April 24 with a stop in Amman, Jordan, in a trip that mixed economic matters with international politics and during which he presented a Ukrainian initiative for resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Calling his visit to Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, three Arabic countries that border Israel, "fruitful," Mr. Kuchma also noted that the Palestinian-Israeli issue is potentially the most volatile in the world at the moment, reported Interfax-Ukraine.

"Ukraine cannot remain indifferent to the crisis," said Mr. Kuchma, after which he fleshed out a Ukrainian government initiative to bring the two sides to the negotiating table "in the context of an international diplomatic effort aimed at a peace settlement."

In a proposal that in many ways paralleled an earlier one put forward by Saudi Arabia, President Kuchma called for an immediate ceasefire and the pullout of Israeli troops from Palestinian territory to be replaced by the deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force on the West Bank and in Gaza.

He explained that this was a necessary first step "to create a favorable environment for resuming talks on the creation of a Palestinian state, guarantee the observance of ceasefire accords, return to the Palestinian Authorities the levers of control over their situation and prevent fresh manifestations of violence."

He called on Palestinians to halt terrorist attacks and for the conflicting parties to implement the Tenet Plan and the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission.

Mr. Kuchma also demanded that peace talks begin concomitantly with the establishment of a Palestinian state. The Ukrainian president said that he is ready to mediate the negotiations and to hold them in Yalta.

He suggested the need to organize a United Nations donor conference to mobilize resources for humanitarian relief for the Palestinian areas affected by the conflict.

President Kuchma traveled to the Middle East not only as a peacemaker, but also to conjure up business investments and economic opportunity for Ukraine and establish closer diplomatic ties to the three countries on his itinerary.

His first stop was Damascus, where he and Syrian President Basher al-Assad signed a number of bilateral documents, among them agreements on trade and economic development that would lay the legal basis for the establishment of representative trade missions in both countries, in addition to an accord on mutual protection of investments.

In a private meeting the two state presidents discussed the Mideast conflict and endorsed the "land for peace" principle called for in a U.N. Security Council resolution.

Mr. Kuchma then traveled to Beirut for a two-day stay on April 22-23, during which he signed agreements on stimulating entrepreneurial investment between Lebanese and Ukrainian businessmen. The president called on Lebanese investors "to take a more active part in the privatization of Ukrainian firms," noting that in 2001 the trade turnover between the two countries was a meager $100 million.

"We believe that today there are genuine prospects for the participation of large Ukrainian industrial and scientific opportunities in cooperative projects in Lebanon," said Mr. Kuchma.

He also met with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri to discuss the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

On his second day in Lebanon, President Kuchma visited the 3,500 soldiers of the special Ukrainian battalion of the United Nations contingent stationed in southern Lebanon, which is completing mine removal work in the area.

In Jordan, where he spent April 23-24, he met with King Abdullah II and signed more trade and economic agreements, including the establishment of categories of tax and duty-free imports. Jordan's Premier Ali Abu al-Ragheb and the Ukrainian president agreed to develop an intergovernmental commission on trade and economic cooperation.

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