Gore in Kyiv to review U.S.-Ukraine strategic partnership (07/26/98)

Gore in Kyiv to review U.S.-Ukraine strategic partnership

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - United States Vice-President Al Gore spent the first of his two days in Ukraine, July 22, reviewing the strategic partnership that has developed between the two countries.

He and Ukraine's President Leonid Kuchma chaired the second plenary session of the U.S.-Ukraine Binational Commission, better known as the Kuchma-Gore Commission, which is the chief vehicle for the expansion of relations between the two countries.

The first plenary session took place in May 1997 in Washington, with both Vice-President Gore and President Kuchma in attendance. The commission was set up in September 1996 to "underscore the substance of [the] strategic partnership," as explained in a press release from Vice-President Gore's office.

The commission includes four committees - foreign policy, security, trade and investment, and sustainable economic cooperation - that carry on the work of the commission between plenary sessions.

Before the plenary session the vice-president met privately for two hours with President Kuchma, discussing myriad issues, from the closing of Chornobyl and nuclear non-proliferation to economic reforms and cooperation in space.

There were no criticisms and much verbal back-slapping from both sides, as the national leaders sought to play up the positive aspects of the U.S.-Ukraine strategic partnership.

Mr. Gore accented the strength of the relations between the two countries and the accomplishments of the Kuchma-Gore Commission.

"The commission plays a central role in building and strengthening the strategic partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine," said the vice-president at a press conference at the Mariinsky Palace after the conclusion of the Kuchma-Gore Commission meeting. "Together we are making real progress in encouraging the growth of freedom and democracy, and extending the bonds of friendship and cooperation between our two nations and between our two peoples," he added.

President Kuchma called the plenary session "successful" and said the work of the commission "confirms the high degree of openness and confidence in Ukraine-U.S. relations."

The Ukrainian president said the meeting focused on urgent political, military and economic issues, on nuclear non-proliferation and on expanding economic cooperation, especially in the energy and agricultural sectors.

Vice-President Gore, as do most U.S. political leaders who travel here, stressed the need for Ukraine to move forward to complete economic reforms, which he said Ukraine must do to avoid the financial catastrophes that have hit many countries in Asia.

The vice-president also expressed support for the series of economic decrees that President Kuchma issued in June during the Parliament's leadership crisis.

"It will take bold courage to adopt the reforms that these times call for. That is the courage that I have seen in the decrees issued by President Kuchma in the last month," said Vice-President Gore. He called on newly elected Verkhovna Rada Chairman Oleksander Tkachenko to support the president's initiatives.

Although President Kuchma said the U.S. backs the extension of an International Monetary Fund Extended Fund Facility (EFF) for Ukraine, Mr. Gore did not explicitly call on the IMF to extend such a loan, which would give Ukraine a line of credit that could exceed $2 billion, as well as ensure an additional $1 billion from the World Bank. The vice-president said President Kuchma's new economic program, if implemented, would meet IMF requirements.

An IMF mission was expected to arrive in Kyiv as Mr. Gore was departing, at which time final negotiations on the EFF were to take place.

Vice-President Gore also expressed strong support for a Ukraine-sponsored energy pipeline that would carry oil from the Caspian Sea region to Western Europe via a still-to-be-completed oil terminal at the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

"We have long supported multiple pipelines for the Caspian Sea, and we welcome this proposal and encourage the Ukrainian effort," said Mr. Gore.

The oil pipeline project has come under criticism from some experts as poorly conceived and financed. The U.S. vice-president called on Ukraine to work with the region's banks and financiers to achieve sufficient bankrolling for the project.

Chornobyl's shutdown discussed

Mr. Gore, who flew by helicopter to the Chornobyl site on July 23, also expressed his firm belief that Ukraine would abide by its commitment to close the Chornobyl nuclear facility by the year 2000, which he said President Kuchma had reaffirmed during their talks.

The vice-president said he understands the necessity to find alternate energy sources for the electricity that will be lost with the shutdown of the last functioning Chornobyl reactor and noted that the U.S. is in the lead in assistance for that effort, but he did not specifically express support for the completion of construction of the Rivne and Khmelnytsky nuclear facilities, which have been bogged down over the lack of international financing that Ukraine is demanding.

There would be no money from the U.S. for the closing of Chornobyl on this trip, as Mr. Gore explained in response to a question from a reporter with the White House press corps.

Mr. Gore said the world community has already committed $1.55 billion for the reconstruction of the deteriorating protective shell that covers the fourth nuclear reactor stricken in 1986, as well as for securing Ukraine's energy grid and replacement sources of technology.

The two sides also discussed spurring American foreign investment and joint technology projects for the Kharkiv region, which lost some $25 million after the Ukrainian government canceled the sale of a turbine to Russia that was to be used in the construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran.

Both Mr. Gore and Mr. Kuchma expressed their satisfaction also with Ukraine's moves in the area of nuclear non-proliferation. Ukraine was recently granted membership in the Missile Technology Control Regime, which will give it advantages in the development of its aerospace industry.

Four agreements signed

The two men signed agreements on textile and apparel trade, on a radio ecology laboratory for Chornobyl and on bilateral nuclear safety assistance, as well as a mutual legal assistance treaty. The latter is an agreement on the exchange of information between law enforcement agencies. Mr. Gore called it a "very serious agreement."

During Vice-President Gore's brief trip to Ukraine, the first day was dedicated to the Kuchma-Gore Commission plenary session, the second day to Chornobyl, which was marked by a trip to the disaster site via helicopter and a quick tour of the plant grounds and the abandoned city of Prypiat, followed by a visit to the Chornobyl Museum located in Kyiv's historic Podil district.

Afterwards Mr. Gore flew to Moscow for talks with Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

Gore visits Chornobyl