Armitage to Kuchma: free and fair elections will be benchmark of U.S-Ukraine relations (04/04/04)

Armitage to Kuchma: free and fair elections will be benchmark of U.S-Ukraine relations

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Ukrainian authorities during his one-day stay in Kyiv on March 25 that future relations between Ukraine and the West are dependent on how the country's presidential elections proceed.

"It's our view that the nation of Ukraine has committed herself to certain standards as she addresses European Union and North Atlantic integration and the NATO action plan," explained Mr. Armitage during a press conference. "We would be able to develop a political relationship if there were fair, free, open and democratic elections. It's a very important milestone for Ukraine, I believe."

Mr. Armitage emphasized that he believed that a good economic and security relationship already exists between Ukraine and the U.S. He added that if Ukraine held democratic elections free of "media intimidation and opposition intimidation," relations between Washington and Kyiv could "get back to the type of relationship we envisioned when Ukraine became free more than about a dozen years ago."

Mr. Armitage's trip encompassed nearly all the priority issues in Ukraine's foreign policy towards the West, including its participation in the Iraq stabilization force; business contracts for rebuilding Iraq that Kyiv would like awarded to Ukrainian businesses; European Union and NATO membership for the country; and the Odesa-Brody oil pipeline.

During a day on which he met with top state and government officials, as well as with opposition leaders, Mr. Armitage repeatedly stressed free and fair democratic elections as the benchmark that would determine Ukraine's future integration with the West.

After speaking with Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostiantyn Gryshchenko, Mr. Armitage rejected notions that Ukraine sent troops to Iraq to appease the U.S. He emphasized that it was Washington's understanding that Kyiv did so in response to the menace of international terrorism and to express its commitment to fighting the threat.

While meeting with President Leonid Kuchma, the U.S. State Department official gave the Ukrainian state leader a letter from U.S. President George W. Bush and thanked Mr. Kuchma for "his brave decision to send Ukrainian soldiers to Iraq."

With Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, Mr. Armitage discussed the reconstruction of Iraq and contracts for Ukrainian businesses. Ukrainian officials have complained that Ukrainian companies have been ignored in the bid process for contracts. He told the head of the Ukrainian government that Washington would soon send experts to Ukraine to provide support to Ukrainian businesses in developing more successful bids on Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

Later, during his press conference, Mr. Armitage said he believed that the two issues - Ukrainian participation in the Iraq peacekeeping effort and Iraqi reconstruction contracts - needed to be separated. He explained that he also wanted to dispel any notion that Ukraine committed to participation in the Iraq stabilization mission to obtain business contracts.

"I have a higher feeling and opinion of the people of Ukraine," explained Mr. Armitage. "I do not think that Ukrainian soldiers, the sons of Ukrainian mothers, went to Iraq in order to get contracts."

The deputy secretary of state, the highest ranking U.S. official to visit Ukraine since the Iraq war, said the reason that so few top level Bush administration representatives had visited Kyiv in the last few years had to do with what Washington had perceived as a questionable dedication to democratic development by Ukraine.

"We didn't have a high-level dialogue with the president, and one of the reasons was that we had some real questions about the commitment to democracy," explained Mr. Armitage.

The U.S. undersecretary of state emphasized that Ukraine's commitment would be further tested through the October 31 presidential vote. He noted that he had discussed with President Kuchma the intimidation of the Ukrainian mass media and the opposition forces by government bodies. He told journalists in his last appearance in Kyiv that he supported a limited ban on government oversight of opposition organizations, including by the State Tax Administration and the various law enforcement bodies, until after the elections.

Mr. Armitage said the opposition leaders with whom he had met - Viktor Yushchenko of the Our Ukraine Bloc and Yulia Tymoshenko of the eponymous political bloc, along with several top supporters - impressed him with their dedication and sincerity.

"My impressions are that the opposition is very tense, very dedicated, troubled," explained the U.S. official. "It wants to be sure that the international community is watching very closely to see that generally recognized European standards for elections are upheld."

Mr. Armitage said he believes that the political reform process, which the president and the parliamentary majority supported and the opposition was attempting to block, was ill-timed. He expressed the belief that constitutional changes should always proceed "carefully and only after considerable study," and never in an election season.

Mr. Armitage also touched on the subject of the Odesa-Brody pipeline with Ukrainian officials, which was the focus of considerable international attention in the last several months. He expressed support for the decision by Ukraine to commit to using the Odesa-Brody pipeline in its originally planned direction and its rejection of a controversial effort to have it flow in reverse.

"The specter of oil going to Europe without it having to go through the Bosporus is an advantage," said Mr. Armitage, who added that it was good for the environment, too.

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