Moscow meetings make progress on Russian-Ukrainian friendship treaty (10/06/96)

Moscow meetings make progress on Russian-Ukrainian friendship treaty

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - The treaty on friendship and cooperation between Ukraine and Russia, which has been in the making for several years, could soon be ready for signing. Maybe.

On October 1, Yuriy Sergeyev, head of the press bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said a series of meetings held last week in Moscow had broken the log jam and that within weeks most of the most important documents, including the division of the Black Sea Fleet (BSF), would be ready for signing.

Since 1994, Ukraine and Russia have been working on a friendship treaty, an effort that has been derailed several times, chiefly because the two countries have not been able to agree on the status of the BSF's main port, Sevastopol, and Russia's demand that it have more than one base in Crimea.

On September 28, Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma flew to Moscow for an impromptu working meeting with Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. The meeting was a result of what Mr. Sergeyev called "unusually dynamic and intense dialogue" last week between the deputy prime ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Vasyl Durdynets and Valeriy Serov, respectively.

One outcome of Mr. Kuchma's meeting is that Prime Minister Chernomyrdin will visit Kyiv at the end of October, which he announced in Moscow on October 1, although he did not give a specific date.

Interfax-Ukraine reported that Mr. Chernomyrdin said all the major issues that need to be resolved before a treaty on friendship and cooperation could be signed had been touched on and that "considerable progress" had been achieved. "We must stop beating around the bush, it is time to sign an agreement."

Whether Mr. Chernomyrdin has the political authority to move to such an agreement is yet to be seen, but he did say that Russian President Boris Yeltsin has been apprised of the latest developments. "We have reached a point very close to signing the documents," said Mr. Chernomyrdin.

Mr. Yeltsin has on several occasions announced plans to travel to Kyiv to sign a treaty on friendship and cooperation, all of which have been canceled because the BSF situation has remained an unresolved issue.

The latest change of plans occurred on March 28, when the Russian president canceled an April 4 signing. At the time he said, "If the BSF agreements are not included in the treaty on friendship and cooperation with Ukraine, there is no reason to go to Ukraine now." Many believed part of the reason for that cancellation was that, with the upcoming presidential elections, he did not want to be seen as weak on the issue of Ukraine.

Mr. Chernomyrdin, in his remarks to Interfax-Ukraine, said the point of his visit to Ukraine would be to finalize the various documents. Presidents Kuchma and Yeltsin would then only have to formally sign "the big treaty," as he put it.

President Kuchma concurred with Prime Minister Chernomyrdin in a statement released to the press. He said he had traveled to Moscow to personally discuss the remaining obstacles, and it was not an emergency session as some in Ukraine's press corps have defined it. "We needed to identify the major obstacles before us at this time," he explained. "Mr. Chernomyrdin and I are in full agreement regarding questions on the Black Sea Fleet and with regard to the value-added tax."

But all is not as amiable as it may seem on the surface, especially in Russia's Duma. The chairman of the Committee for CIS Affairs and Liaison, Georgiy Tikhonov, announced on October 1 that in October his committee will present a draft law on the BSF, which would call a halt to any division of the fleet and would line-item funding for the entire fleet and the city of Sevastopol in Russia's budget. He said Sevastopol "has been and will remain a Russian city."

Mr. Sergeyev of Ukraine's Foreign Affairs Ministry called the Duma member's remarks chauvinistic in nature. "I do not respect Mr. Tikhonov and his anti-Ukrainian remarks. It is unethical and is not politics," said Mr. Sergeyev.

Ukrainian Deputy Anton Buteiko echoed the press officer's remarks the following day. "The initiators of such a decision are people living in a dream world of yesteryear," said Mr. Buteiko.

Mr. Sergeyev explained that another delegation from Ukraine had left for Moscow on October 2. He said the physical division of the fleet had been agreed upon. "The delegation is to work out the mechanisms for the financial split of the Black Sea Fleet," said the press spokesman.

The value-added tax also still lurks in the background as an issue, regardless of the positive spin Mr. Kuchma has put on its implementation by Russia. Many in Ukraine's government and in the Parliament are not happy with the way Russia has unilaterally implemented the VAT, which is the value-added tax of 20 percent that Russia imposed on Ukrainian goods beginning on October 1.

Although there had been some hope that negotiations during September would lead to a narrower implementation of the tariff, with certain Ukrainian goods excluded, that did not happen. Mr. Sergeyev said that the VAT is one of the economic issues that will continue to be discussed this week in Moscow.