Kuchma defends agreements signed in Moscow (03/08/98)

Kuchma defends agreements signed in Moscow

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Two days after his return from Moscow from the first state visit by a Ukrainian president to Russia, President Leonid Kuchma defended a series of agreements that he says will strengthen economic and political ties between the two countries and bring badly needed investment money into Ukraine.

The agreement has been the subject of much criticism in Ukraine from politicians and much of the Ukrainian media, which have painted the trip as an economic sell-out of Ukraine and perhaps even the first step to reunion.

During his February 26-28 summit in Moscow Mr. Kuchma and Russian President Boris Yeltsin formally signed a 10-year economic cooperation agreement, which Russia's Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin has said would increase by two and a half times the amount of trade between the two countries by the year 2007. The agreement includes increased ties in aircraft manufacturing, and in the fuel, energy, metallurgy, space, missile and chemical industries. It also calls for joint coordination of economic reforms and for cooperation in restructuring the social insurance systems still intact from Soviet times.

After the signing of the accord on February 27 at St. George's Hall in the Kremlin President Kuchma said, "We have taken a big step towards each other." President Yeltsin said Ukraine and Russia now share a strategic partnership.

The two leaders' discussions during the official three-day visit covered a broad range of topics, including a long-delayed formal demarcation of borders, including rights to the Sea of Azov; naval cooperation in the Black Sea; joint production of a military airplane, the AN-70; the status of the Transdniester region; and relations with NATO.

In a joint statement summing up the meeting, the two sides called for "further perfection of the system of trade and economic relations for coordinating the restructuring of the economy of Ukraine and of Russia and for possible harmonization of the national laws of both countries to that end." The statement cited the need for free access to each other's markets and for "the intensification of investment policies on a mutually beneficial basis and the creation of transnational financial industrial groups."

The statement also called for stepping up negotiations on the delineation of the Russian-Ukrainian border and for developing "a mechanism for cooperation" on the issue of the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait. Both sides have been unbending in their negotiations as to ownership of the two bodies of water and how to demarcate the border.

Regarding the Black Sea Fleet, the two sides declared the need for developing closer interaction between the Russian navy and the naval forces of Ukraine.

On the cultural front, the two presidents agreed to continue to fund cultural exchanges, including the "Days of Ukrainian Culture," held for the first time this past October, and the upcoming "Days of Russian Culture" set for May of this year in Kyiv.

But, more importantly, they agreed that an official Ukrainian-language newspaper and a television network should be established in Moscow and similar Russian-language media in Kyiv.

Also, they decided that a Russian consulate-general will be established in Symferopol, the capital of Ukraine's Crimean Autonomous Republic.

The two sides also reached agreement on expansion of cooperation in science, education and information.

In international affairs, the joint statement pointed to the need for strengthened cooperation within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, although no specifics were mentioned.

Regarding relations with Europe, the two sides presented a proposal for building a new security framework with the European Union, a Charter of European Security. With regard to cooperation with NATO, they agreed to consult regularly to develop a common approach to NATO and to their memberships in the Euro-Atlantic Cooperation Council and the Partnership for Peace program.

Russia to help complete nuclear reactors

During the state visit, Presidents Kuchma and Yeltsin also signed a protocol of intent outlining Russian support to complete construction of two Ukrainian nuclear power facilities, one in Rivne and the other in Khmelnytskyi. Russia also agreed to extend aid to develop a proper structure to seal Chornobyl reactor No. 4, which exploded in 1986 and whose hastily-constructed sarcophagus is deteriorating.

Meeting with Russian businessmen in Moscow, Ukraine's Prime Minister Valerii Pustovoitenko said the two nuclear plants can be completed for approximately $240 million - far less than the $1.2 billion Ukraine has quoted Western leaders. Russia has agreed to provide $100 million in material assistance.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, which had agreed to cover the costs of the project after Ukraine agreed to shut down the Chornobyl nuclear complex in return, has withheld funding while it waits for Ukraine to come into compliance with European safety standards and design requirements.

The Rivne and Khmelnytskyi plants have old VVER-1000 Russian-designed nuclear reactors, and for the most part have been built with Russian parts.

Controversy over Ukraine and NATO

The reference to NATO in the joint statement issued by the two presidents became a point of controversy after President Yeltsin's press secretary, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, told reporters that President Kuchma had promised Ukraine would not seek membership in NATO.

At a press conference in Kyiv held on March 3, President Kuchma dismissed Mr. Yastrzhembsky's statement as not worthy of comment. He explained that Ukraine is developing a "multi-vector" approach in its foreign affairs. "For all the importance we attach to our relations with Russia, it remains only one of the aspects of our foreign policy, albeit a very important one," said President Kuchma.

He said that Ukraine has not turned away from Europe as has widely been suggested in the press. "Ukraine's policy of integration into the European Union and of close and multi-faceted cooperation with NATO remains unchanged," said the president. "In terms of its geopolitical significance, Ukraine is too large and too important a country to have only one direction for its development."

But Mr. Kuchma could not resist throwing a dart the way of NATO. "Who is inviting us [into NATO]?" he asked. "If there was movement toward an agreement, that would be another thing."

He reaffirmed, however, that Ukraine has no intention of reneging on any of the provisions in the charter that Ukraine signed with NATO last summer.

Kuchma criticized at home

The president was on the defensive at his press conference as journalists repeatedly questioned accounts of the agreements signed in Moscow. "We did not conceal, nor are we now concealing, what was signed in Moscow," said President Kuchma. "The accusations made by certain members of the press regarding the allegedly 'secret' nature of the documents that were prepared for signing seem somewhat strange."

He said that all documents signed during the state visit will be made public.

The Ukrainian press has been critical of the accord and the various intergovernmental agreements and joint declarations signed by the Ukraine and Russia. The Verkhovna Rada newspaper, Holos Ukrainy, referring to a statement that President Kuchma made days before he left for Moscow that Ukraine and Russia have for too long suffered from a "divorce syndrome," said on February 28: "The 'divorce syndrome' no longer clouds relations between the two Slavic countries. From the commentaries it seems that the 'former marriage' is leaning toward a 'second marriage.'"

The newspaper Den predicted before the Moscow visit that "the president will go to maximum lengths to appease Russian businessmen. In fact, it will be the betrayal of everybody and everything. At the same time an informal agreement will be reached on support for today's president in the presidential elections."

The popular tabloid Vseukrainskie Viedomosti also made light of the irony that Mr. Kuchma spent part of February 28 with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov; the two had lunch and Mr. Luzhkov was the president's escort to the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Moscow. Only days earlier Mr. Luzhkov had once again illegally slipped into the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol to reiterate that it should belong to Russia. That trip was officially criticized by Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At his Kyiv press conference on March 3 the president said that in the agreements he had signed in Moscow he had done only what is best for Ukraine. "We are not departing from our chosen path of strengthening the statehood and independence of Ukraine. But we will do this pragmatically and prudently while searching for ways to safeguard the interests of the Ukrainian people," he declared.

The president and his administration have tried to portray the economic cooperation agreement as the best way to improve the economic climate in Ukraine and to generate millions of needed jobs. "... I am deeply convinced that this breakthrough in Ukrainian-Russian relations will give us million of jobs. This is in the interest of Ukraine," said President Kuchma at the press conference. "Are we to wait until the West helps us?"

He criticized the West's timidity in investing in Ukraine and said that Ukraine cannot wait for Western businessmen to come around. "They only promise us everything if reforms go through. But reforms cannot be completed until investment develops," said the president. He called the situation a closed circle, or a Catch-22.

In addition to criticizing the press, the president responded to Ukrainian national deputies who questioned the motives behind the long-term economic cooperation pact, including Serhii Teriokhin, who had called the agreement the beginning of the "Belarusification" of Ukraine." President Kuchma said such statements are "cynical" considering that no member of the Verkhovna Rada had yet seen the full texts of the documents.

National Deputy Yevhen Marchuk, who is a prospective presidential candidate, said on February 27 that although he understands that economic cooperation between Ukraine and Russia could be beneficial for both, he is withholding final judgment on the pact until he has read the documents. He said, however, that he supports National Deputy Teriokhin's concern and suggested that there may be secret agreements if only because none of the documents have been submitted for public review. "Neither the Ukrainian people nor the members of Parliament have been allowed to scrutinize the accord," said Mr. Marchuk.