Sens. Lugar, Obama reach agreement with Ukraine on biological weapons (09/04/05)

Sens. Lugar, Obama reach agreement with Ukraine on biological weapons

by Yana Sedova
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A pair of leading U.S. senators reached agreement with Ukrainian officials to secure biological pathogens and prevent the proliferation of biological weapons, and gave assurances they would support further steps toward Ukraine's membership in the World Trade Organization during a two-day visit to Kyiv on August 29 and 30.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) lauded the Ukrainian government's willingness to cooperate with the U.S. and said the pact will prevent the spread of biological pathogens and terrorist expertise.

"It wasn't possible to sign the agreement at the same time last year," Sen. Lugar said at an August 29 press conference. "It is possible now."

Sen. Lugar is a co-author of the Nunn-Lugar Act, which established the 1991 Cooperative Threat Reduction Program that proposed financing the elimination of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in the former Soviet Union.

The new agreement's initiatives include a provision to secure epidemiological laboratories that store biological pathogens and establish a national network of epidemiological monitoring stations equipped to rapidly detect, diagnose and respond to infectious disease outbreaks throughout Ukraine, whether naturally occurring or as a result of bioterrorism.

Authorities signed the agreement on the first day of the senators' visit, which was to include a visit to Babyn Yar, the site of Nazi massacres in Kyiv, and a sanitary-epidemiological center.

That same day the senators also discussed the critical issues of Ukraine's entry into the WTO and the repeal of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment with President Viktor Yushchenko and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst.

The senators reassured Ukrainian leaders that they will urge the Senate to repeal the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, which is essential for Ukraine to meet conditions of WTO entry.

In return, President Yushchenko asked Sens. Lugar and Obama to help secure a bilateral agreement for mutual access to markets, which also is necessary for Ukraine's WTO entry, Lvivska Hazeta reported.

For lack of WTO membership, Ukraine loses about $8 billion a year, Mr. Yushchenko told the senators, citing a statistic he has often repeated. The country also needs market economy status, he said.

The Jackson-Vanik Amendment, passed in 1974, set trade sanctions on the former Soviet Union because it denied its Jewish population the opportunity to emigrate. Though the Soviet Union no longer exists, the amendment still restricts Ukraine's ability to export goods to the U.S.

"I have offered legislation this year and before for a repeal of Jackson-Vanik as it pertains to Ukraine," said Sen. Lugar, who authored the bill. Mr. Lugar said he hopes the U.S. Congress will examine and approve the bill in September.

In 2001 the United Jewish Community of Ukraine asked U.S. officials to abolish the Jackson-Vanik Amendment.

However, there is some resistance to rescinding Jackson-Vanik in the U.S. House of Representatives, Sen. Obama said, without specifying who was opposed or why. "We've got to persuade some folks in the House," he said.

As for market economy status, the U.S. government has been studying Ukraine's application and is going to grant the status by year's end, said Eric Stewart, the Commerce Department's deputy assistant secretary, speaking at a July 14 press conference. However, Mr. Stewart added that it would depend on the progress of the Verkhovna Rada's legislation to allow Ukraine WTO entry.

Ukraine's energy industries could become an attractive field for investments, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said at a meeting with Sens. Lugar and Obama the same day.

"Even the United States nowadays feels the danger of energy dependence," said Sen. Lugar, adding that Ukraine's energy reforms, including attempts to diversify its sources beyond Russia, will receive the support of U.S. senators.

The senators arrived in Kyiv later than expected because they endured a three-hour stand-off with Russian Federal Border Service guards in Perm.

The border guards tried to inspect a U.S. Air Force plane with the two senators and their delegation aboard. The congressional delegation refused their demand because their flight had diplomatic status.

The Russian guards duly held them in a malodorous room adjacent to the tarmac and allowed them onto a porch area only after they surrendered their passports, Andy Fisher, a spokesman for Sen. Lugar who was with the delegation, told The Washington Post.

The border guards took three hours to confirm their status before allowing the U.S. delegation to leave.

"This is not the first time this has happened," Mr. Fisher said. A delegation with Sen. Lugar was detained in Perm for a short time two years ago, he said.

"It is always unbelievable," Sen. Lugar told a reporter from the Chicago Tribune traveling with the senators. Russia, he said, "can be a dysfunctional government."

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially apologized for the incident the next day, calling it a pure misunderstanding.

Once in Kyiv, Sen. Lugar said he still wasn't certain about why authorities felt the need to delay their trip, but he didn't criticize the Russian government. "We are pleased that our flight was able to continue to Kyiv, albeit three hours later. We still had a good night's sleep," he noted.

The senators also discussed the elimination of out-of-service arms during an August 29 meeting with Volodymyr Lytvyn, the Verkhovna Rada chairman. The U.S. will finance the Ukrainian program after the Cabinet of Ministers prepares the appropriate bills, Sen. Lugar said.

Mr. Lytvyn assured the senators that the Rada will immediately review the bills.

The U.S. Congress has already provided a Donetsk chemical production plant with $2.1 million for munitions elimination. As part of the elimination program, the plant will also receive $1.1 million in aid from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization through its Partnership for Peace program.

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