Russian foreign minister promotes closer Moscow-Kyiv partnership (05/25/03)

Russian foreign minister promotes closer Moscow-Kyiv partnership

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov called for a closer strategic partnership between Kyiv and Moscow during a visit to Kyiv on May 19-20. In the process Mr. Ivanov tried to convince increasingly wary Ukrainian officials that a common economic space would help Ukraine's desire to draw closer to Europe.

"The realization of this very important project would not only quicken the economic development of our countries, but would also strikingly improve our international standing," explained Mr. Ivanov during a presentation at the International Institute of Kyiv Shevchenko University on May 20.

While President Leonid Kuchma and his closest aides continue to push for a free trade zone between Russia, Belarus, Kazakstan and Ukraine as a limited, first step in the formation of a common economic space, Moscow officials have maintained that the new relationship must be more comprehensive if it is to work, and should include specific provisions for a single regional currency - plans Kyiv believes to be far too premature.

National Deputy Borys Tarasyuk, chairman of the parliamentary Committee on European Integration, noted during the Russian foreign minister's second day in Ukraine that it was nonsense to believe that Ukraine could move politically and economically towards the European Union, an intention it has expressed officially, while simultaneously becoming part of a Eurasian common economic space with certain members of the Commonwealth of Independent States, as President Kuchma has proposed.

"It is time to decide: it is impossible to integrate simultaneously into the EU and the Eurasian Economic Community. It is also impossible to integrate into the European Union together with Russia, which has not even set that as a goal," explained Mr. Tarasyuk.

The issue of strategic partnership and closer relations between Moscow and Kyiv also were the main topics during the first-ever formal gathering of the foreign ministries of Ukraine and Russia. Speaking during the "Ukraine-Russia Collegium of Foreign Ministries," Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatolii Zlenko said that Ukraine could not afford to ignore Russia even as it moved westward.

"I believe there is no alternative to Ukraine's perspectives regarding membership in the European Union. However, we have no choice but to strengthen our friendly, neighborly relations with Russia," explained Mr. Zlenko.

Mr. Ivanov said he thought it necessary for Kyiv and Moscow to further deepen coordination of their approaches in international relations and in interaction in international organizations.

During his two-day stay, Mr. Ivanov broached all the most important current issues regarding relations between the two countries in meetings with President Kuchma, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn.

He assured Ukrainian leaders that the country's possible participation in a U.S.-led stabilization force in Iraq would not weaken relations between the neighbors. Russia has been a central critic, along with France, of the U.S.-led military action in Iraq, which resulted in the removal of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. It has also bitterly opposed any suggestion that the rebuilding effort could move forward without Russian involvement.

"It is an independent decision for Ukraine to make," Mr. Ivanov said of Ukraine's possible intentions.

The remark was the first statement from a Russian official on Moscow's stance towards Ukraine's involvement in the stabilization force. Ukrainian state leaders are expected to make a decision on the country's participation and then move to have the Ukrainian Parliament ratify it - but only after a conference of the stabilization force participant-countries, which is scheduled for Warsaw for May 24.

Mr. Ivanov and Ukrainian leaders also addressed the looming problem of the continued presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. Mr. Ivanov dismissed any suggestion of potential problems and asserted that future redeployment of the fleet is out of the question.

"The base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet is in Sevastopol," said Russia's top diplomat.

With the Black Sea Fleet Accord signed in 1997 nearing the end of its life, some Ukrainian officials had expressed hoped that Kyiv would raise the question of moving the BSF out of the country during Mr. Ivanov's visit.

Mr. Ivanov did not address how Ukraine's proclaimed intent to join NATO would eventually force Russia to move its base outside Ukraine. If Ukraine is serious in its desire to join the North Atlantic Alliance, it must remove all non-NATO forces from its territory before the date of its entry.

Another unresolved issue centered on the process by which both countries are to gain entry into the World Trade Organization. Ukraine has cooled to the idea of moving along the path in tandem with Russia, because Moscow seems to be lagging, while Kyiv is attempting to intensify the process under Minister of the Economy Valerii Khoroshkovskyi.

An earlier policy under which the two sides had agreed to have the leader pull the laggard along in the process by offering consultations and sharing information broke down after Moscow began demanding detailed information on Ukraine's economy, according to the newspaper Den.

Foreign Ministers Ivanov and Zlenko authorized several accords during their meeting, initialing a declaration on a new bilateral strategic partnership and signing a summary document on the results of their discussions on the issue. They also signed an addendum to the border treaty that was approved by President Kuchma and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, during the latter's last visit to Kyiv.

The border treaty and its addenda have been criticized by national democratic forces because they do not specify a deadline for ratification by the respective Parliaments of the two countries, nor do they specify how the demarcation process is to take place.

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