Following years of neutrality, Ukraine declares bid to join NATO (06/02/02)

Following years of neutrality, Ukraine declares bid to join NATO

by Maryna Makhnonos
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

KYIV - After years of neutrality, Ukraine formally declared its intention to seek membership in NATO when Foreign Affairs Minister Anatolii Zlenko delivered a corresponding message in Brussels on May 29, eliciting both positive and negative reaction among neighboring states.

Mr. Zlenko conveyed President Leonid Kuchma's personal message to NATO Secretary General George Robertson during his two-day working visit to Belgium, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Yevhen Marchuk, first announced the NATO-directed step in Ukraine's foreign policy after a special meeting on May 23 chaired by President Kuchma.

The event came days after Mr. Kuchma met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, where both officials touched on the NATO theme.

The announcement also came as U.S. President George W. Bush was starting his visit to Russia, where the presidents of both countries concluded historic agreements to cut their nuclear arsenals from 6,000 warheads to 1,700-2,200 deployed warheads within 10 years and pledged to cooperate in a range of political, economic and strategic areas.

NATO developments continued on May 28 in Rome, where Mr. Putin and the alliance's 19 member-states declared each other partners, ending an era of Cold War antagonism and signing a limited partnership agreement.

The arrangement gave Russia a voice on counterterrorism; the spread of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, missile defense; arms control; peacekeeping; civil defense and search-and-rescue at sea. However, Russia has no veto in NATO's decision-making process.

Ukraine's message about its bid for entrance reached NATO officials before the date originally planned - Mr. Robertson's visit to Kyiv on July 9. Many experts believe the move was prompted by rapprochement between Russia and NATO. The decision to move up the official notification seemed to come in response to the creation of the NATO-Russia Council.

"This [the application's acceleration] is caused by Russia's actions," said the director of the Kyiv-based Institute of Societal Transformation, Oleh Soskin. "Ukraine's previous indefinite position and our support of the multi-vector policy could lay the road to NATO through Russian doors," he added.

With Kyiv's quicker actions, Ukraine "can leapfrog the process between Russia and NATO," Mr. Soskin said.

Official Russian reaction to Ukraine's declaration was surprisingly mute, however. Many Moscow lawmakers denounced it, expressing concerns about NATO's eastward expansion even as Russia itself is pursuing closer relations with the alliance. The formerly Soviet-dominated republics Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have also irked Russia with their firm intentions to join NATO.

"It was announced just like in classic intrigues, when the U.S. president's plane was making its final approach to the Russian capital," said Andrei Nikolayev, head of the Defense Committee in the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament.

Russia's concerns derive from its perception of NATO's expansion as a potential military threat, and many officials reject the explanation that the alliance is primarily a security institution. Russians especially protested the NATO-led bombing campaign against Yugoslavia three years ago.

Nonetheless, it was Russia that prompted Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council to take a decisive step toward NATO by demonstrating stronger ties with the alliance after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Another neighbor of Ukraine, anti-Western Belarus, approved Ukraine's choice as a sovereign gesture. Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenka expressed fears on May 29 that the new Russian-NATO relationship will affect ties among former Soviet republics, but supported Ukraine's bid as a step that may "promote stabilization in this region and strengthen peace and security."

Mr. Lukashenka spoke after meeting with Mr. Kuchma in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, a halfway point between the Belarusian capital of Miensk and Kyiv.

Asked how Belarus would react to being surrounded by NATO partners, Mr. Lukashenka said: "We'll live, and we'll see." He added, "We are studying Ukraine's move very attentively ... to make corresponding conclusions and, maybe, a corresponding move. Don't think that we don't have any dialogue with the North Atlantic structures at all."

Mr. Lukashenka did not express any intention of joining NATO, saying only that Belarus' closer cooperation depends on the NATO's assistance concerning problems caused by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster. Belarus severely suffered from the nuclear accident at the Ukrainian atomic power plant in 1986. Mr. Lukashenka said that NATO officials have replied to his proposal and have scheduled a joint Chornobyl relief effort this fall.

In remarks about NATO's remarkable progress in relations with post-Soviet states, President Kuchma said that Ukraine has taken a "serious step" and praised the NATO-Russia Council for bringing "stability to the European continent."

Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal after declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and proclaiming its neutrality. However, it has participated in numerous NATO-led exercises and its peacekeeping mission in Kosovo.

According to the Foreign Affairs Ministry, Ukrainian officials expect to discuss the terms of Ukraine's entrance into the alliance at the NATO summit in Prague. However, the outlook remains dim because the Ukrainian economy, as well as Ukraine's performance in terms of democracy and rights issues, are far from NATO standards.

| Home Page |