Ukrainian Security Council official visits D.C. to bolster bilateral ties (09/29/96)

Ukrainian Security Council official visits D.C. to bolster bilateral ties

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Volodymyr Horbulin, the secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, on September 19 concluded four days of talks with senior Clinton administration officials, as the two countries announced the creation of a U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission.

The commission, to be chaired by President Leonid Kuchma and Vice-President Al Gore, according to the joint statement, "will build even closer ties between Ukraine and the United States and will deepen our strategic partnership" in the areas of foreign policy, security, trade and investment, and sustainable economic cooperation. The details of the structure of the new commission, which was agreed to during President Kuchma's last visit to Washington, were finalized during Mr. Horbulin's meeting with Mr. Gore's advisors early in his visit.

Mr. Horbulin also had discussions with Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Defense Secretary William Perry, President Clinton's National Security Advisor Anthony Lake as well as with Central Intelligence Agency Director John Deutch and Assistant Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation William Esposito. While in Washington Mr. Horbulin was the featured speaker at the congressional luncheon reception commemorating the fifth anniversary of Ukraine's independence (see story on page 1).

The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington characterized Mr. Horbulin's official discussions as "exceptionally productive and beneficial ... constituting an important step forward in the development of the bilateral relationship, which now has reached the level of a strategic partnership."

In his meeting with Mr. Lake, Mr. Horbulin discussed the future of the bilateral relationship, the creation of a collective security system in Europe, Ukraine's relations with NATO, the planned expansion of the Western alliance, and Ukraine's relations with Russia. During the meeting, Mr. Horbulin reiterated Ukraine's wish to integrate with the West, but suggested that the European security system should not be limited to a one-bloc model. Rather, it would be better to seek bilateral and multilateral variations, he said.

Ukraine's proposal for a nuclear-free Central and Eastern Europe was among the subjects discussed during Mr. Horbulin's meeting with Deputy Secretary Talbott. According the Ukrainian Embassy, the proposal "was received with understanding by the American side."

NATO expansion and Ukraine's relationship with NATO was at the center of Mr. Horbulin's talks with Defense Secretary Perry. The also discussed bilateral military cooperation and Ukraine's military reform program. Both sides gave the bilateral military relationship high marks and looked at new proposals to further enhance those ties, the Embassy said.

Mr. Horbulin also had an agenda-packed meeting with Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs Lynn Davis. Among other security-related items, the two discussed Ukraine's joining the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR). That issue, according to a report in the September 23 Washington Times, is at the center of an "intense bureaucratic fight" within the Clinton administration, between the anti-proliferation forces and those that "would weaken the missile control regime in the interest of improved U.S.-Ukraine ties." The Times places Undersecretary Davis and Deputy Secretary Talbott in the latter group.

Mr. Horbulin also had a number of meetings with non-government experts, such as former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski and the Republican presidential candidate Robert Dole's foreign policy adviser, Paula Dobriansky.

Commenting on Mr. Horbulin's talks in Washington, Volodymyr Shevchenko, a member of the Verkhovna Rada and the Rukh Party whose Washington visit coincided with Mr. Horbulin's, said that his party applauds the results of his visit. "We give him and his efforts very high marks. We know that his meetings have resulted in agreements that really make us strategic partners of the United States. Ukraine has now entered a wider political arena," Mr. Shevchenko said.

Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) had this comment on the creation of the Kuchma-Gore Commission: "This is a very important step by the Clinton administration to develop a framework and a process for a closer relationship between our two countries, and is something many of us have pressed very hard for and I think is very much to be welcomed."