NATO chief sees Ukraine as supplier (07/19/98)

NATO chief sees Ukraine as supplier

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - NATO Secretary-General Javier Solana made his fourth visit to Ukraine on July 8-9, which included a visit to a formerly top secret Ukrainian military installation to explore the country's potential as a supplier of military equipment for NATO's vast military arsenal.

The NATO secretary-general spent part of one day at the PivdenMash rocket factory in the city of Dnipropetrovsk, once directed by the current president of Ukraine, which is now deeply involved in developing rockets for the Sea Launch satellite-launching project in a joint venture with the United States, Norway and Russia.

"Until quite recently PivdenMash was in a restricted zone, but I stand here and this is convincing evidence that there must be no restricted zones in Europe in the 21st century," said the NATO secretary-general, according to Interfax-Ukraine.

Mr. Solana stressed the vast private-sector potential of PivdenMash, the one-time producer of the SS-18 rocket that carried the Soviet nuclear arsenal on its tips. He cited the Sea Launch project as one example of that potential.

Mr. Solana was in Ukraine at the invitation of President Leonid Kuchma on the occasion of the first anniversary of the signing of the special charter between Ukraine and NATO, and to outline plans for the future development of relations.

Those discussions included talks on the restructuring and conversion of Ukraine's defense industry, vocational training for de-commissioned military officers, strategies for dealing with emergency situations and economic security.

"The stability, security and prosperity of Europe cannot be attained without stable relations between the member-states of NATO and Ukraine, as much as Ukraine plays a key role in ensuring these factors," said Mr. Solana at a press conference at NATO's Information and Documentation Center in Kyiv on July 9.

During his two-day visit he met with President Kuchma, Minister of Foreign Affairs Borys Tarasyuk, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Volodymyr Horbulin, Minister of Defense Oleksander Kuzmuk and Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko.

After meeting with the NATO secretary-general, Mr. Horbulin said Ukraine would work to make its military equipment meet NATO standards, which he hoped would pave the way for increased cooperation in the military sphere and allow Ukraine to secure orders for military equipment from the Western defense alliance.

Ukraine's representative to NATO, Kostiantyn Morozov, who was independent Ukraine's first defense minister, explained in an interview with the newspaper Den that Mr. Solana visited Dnipropetrovsk to get a first-hand look at Ukraine's potential as a supplier of military hardware.

"Right now the talk is limited to political recognition for possible cooperation with Ukraine," said Mr. Morozov. "Today NATO's interest in Ukraine's defense complex has become more concrete. NATO needs to modernize the military potential of those countries that have been invited to take membership in the alliance. And, as we know, they use military equipment and technology that is similar to ours."

Mr. Morozov stressed that Ukraine's modernized T-72 battle tank, which is currently being produced for Pakistan, is well-suited to the needs of Poland, the Czech republic and Hungary, the three countries that have been invited to join NATO.

During the meeting with Defense Minister Kuzmuk, Mr. Solana was also offered the use of military training grounds in western Ukraine for NATO military exercises. NATO is currently looking for a primary training site in Eastern Europe; a site in Macedonia is also under consideration.