Foreign policy is top priority of Yushchenko's first 100 days (05/15/05)

Foreign policy is top priority of Yushchenko's first 100 days

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Foreign policy proved to be Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's top priority during his first 100 days in office, as he devoted much time traveling and meeting the leaders of Ukraine's critical international partners.

His visits to Brussels, Washington and Berlin aimed to solidify Ukraine's rejuvenated image internationally and reinforce the new administration's commitment to directing Ukraine toward European integration.

"Ukraine is the heart of Europe," Mr. Yushchenko told the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights body, on January 25. "The future of Europe is impossible without Ukraine."

President Yushchenko also developed extremely close ties with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili, who shares the Ukrainian president's vision of integrating his nation into the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

His first action as president, however, was a symbolic trip to Moscow, a gesture intended to reassure Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine seeks to maintain constructive relations with its "strategic partner," a phrase frequently repeated by Ukraine's leader during his first 100 days in office.

Simultaneously, the new government's determination to change its relations with Russia also became apparent, particularly when Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko canceled a planned visit to Moscow in late April the day after the Russian Federation's top prosecutor said criminal charges were still pending against her.

European Union

During his first month in office, Mr. Yushchenko put relations with Europe at the top of his agenda, visiting the European Parliament and Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France; and the European Union and NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

In addressing Europe's leaders, President Yushchenko asked that they consider Ukraine for European Union membership, insisting that his nation could meet the necessary requirements.

Ukraine's leaders were encouraged by the January 13 vote in the European Parliament in support of a resolution that called for giving Ukraine "a clear European perspective," possibly leading to EU membership.

"The European Parliament vote was an especially important event which proved that Ukraine can be a future member of the European Union," said Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, Ukraine's former ambassador to the U.S. "This is very important for us."

On February 21 Ukraine and the EU signed a three-year Action Plan in Brussels through which the EU expressed support for Kyiv's bid to obtain market economy status, to join the World Trade Organization and to sign a free trade agreement.

Meetings with German and Polish officials produced agreements to improve and expand Ukraine's ability to transport fuel into the EU.

Ms. Tymoshenko reached agreements to form a joint-committee with Polish authorities to begin work on extending the Odesa-Brody pipeline to the cities of Plotsk and Gdansk in Poland.

In order to encourage travel to Ukraine, particularly during the Eurovision 2005 Song Contest, Mr. Yushchenko dropped visa requirements for all European Union citizens between May 1 and September 1.

In return, Mr. Yushchenko asked for relaxed visa restrictions, particularly for Ukrainian businessmen and students, when he addressed the German Bundestag in Berlin.

Russia

While President Yushchenko and his foreign policy team focused heavily on obtaining political dividends from the nation's rejuvenated image in Europe, they handled the strained relations with their eastern neighbor with restraint.

After Mr. Yushchenko's working visit to Moscow, Mr. Putin visited Kyiv in late March in order to discuss, among other things, the creation of a Russia-Ukraine gas transit consortium that would include Germany, and later possibly France and Italy.

Mr. Putin placed a heavy emphasis of Ukraine's participation in the Single Economic Space that would include Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Mr. Yushchenko said he wouldn't be opposed to the SES as long as it didn't interfere with Ukraine's ability to enter the EU, which is his administration's top foreign policy priority.

Ms. Tymoshenko's cancellation of her trip to Russia in early April raised eyebrows in Moscow, signaling the new Ukrainian government's intention to conduct foreign policy independently and on equal terms with Moscow.

Any resulting tensions were quickly eased when Defense Minister Anatolii Hrytsenko and National Security and Defense Council Secretary Petro Poroshenko agreed to visit Moscow in her stead.

Their purpose was to persuade Russian leaders that Ukraine's Euro-Atlantic integration and GUAM members do not threaten Russia's interests.

Russian-Ukrainian relations haven't worsened, observers said, but they also aren't likely to improve very much as long as Mr. Putin manages to serve the remainder of his presidential term through 2008.

United States

Mr. Yushchenko's three-day visit to the U.S. in early April resoundingly impressed political observers. Though the Ukrainian president spent most of his time delivering speeches and building relations with American leaders, a handful of concrete results were likely to emerge.

Namely, the U.S. Congress will likely respond to Mr. Yushchenko's request to waive the Jackson-Vanik trade sanctions, said Dr. Taras Kuzio, a visiting professor at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University in Washington.

Congress applied the Jackson-Vanik sanctions to Soviet Ukraine in 1974, a means of exerting economic pressure to ease emigration restrictions against Jews.

Mr. Yushchenko's Washington visit reaped one certain reward, in the form of a bill passed by Congress on May 6 that allocates an additional $60 million in urgent funding to support democracy-building programs in Ukraine.

U.S. President George W. Bush made the initial request for the additional support in February, and informed Mr. Yushchenko of the proposal during the historic April visit.

Another step toward improved relations occurred on May 4 when the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv announced it would begin issuing immigrant visas for Ukrainian citizens in Kyiv. (See related story on page 5.) Previously, immigrant visa applicants had to travel to the U.S. Embassy in Warsaw to complete the immigrant visa process.

An accomplishment as significant as any in the first 100 days of U.S.-Ukraine relations under the Yushchenko administration occurred when NATO ministers decided in mid-April to extend Ukraine an invitation to begin an Intensified Dialogue on Membership, the first step to possible membership.

"Certainly, this still isn't achievement of membership, and the door to it is not fully open," said Dr. Shcherbak, "but it's a very significant step forward."

GUAM

With the majority of GUAM's (Georgia-Ukraine-Armenia-Moldova) member nations taking a decidedly pro-Western course in their foreign policies, President Yushchenko was able to reinvigorate and redirect the organization at its April 22 meeting in Chisinau, Moldova.

As a result, European Union and NATO membership have emerged as priorities for GUAM. President Yushchenko also advocated turning GUAM into a "large-scale regional organization" with its own headquarters and secretariat.

At the same time, President Yushchenko has stressed that GUAM is not an alternative to the Single Economic Space fiercely advocated by Mr. Putin or the Commonwealth of Independent States.

GUAM's decidedly Westward shift in recent months likely led to the Uzbekistan government's announcement in recent weeks that it is withdrawing from the economic partnership.

Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov has led an authoritarian government in suppression of human rights. He has also enjoyed tight relations with Mr. Putin.

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