Udovenko ends term as General Assembly president (10/04/98)

Udovenko ends term as General Assembly president

by Irene Jarosewich

NEW YORK - The 53rd session of the United Nations General Assembly convened here on September 9, electing Dr. Didier Opertti of Uruguay as the new president of the General Assembly and ending the one-year term of Ukrainian diplomat Hennadii Udovenko.

The new president praised Mr. Udovenko's tenure as one in which great progress had been made in implementing U.N. reforms, a goal that Mr. Udovenko had set for himself at the beginning of his term. Similar praise was offered by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Mr. Udovenko had given his closing remarks at the final plenary of the 52nd session on September 8.

Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the U.N. hosted a farewell reception for Mr. Udovenko at the Mission on September 16. Ukraine's ambassador to the U.N., Volodymyr Yelchenko, said Mr. Udovenko, who is greatly admired by his diplomatic colleagues, received numerous accolades during the reception for his efforts in pushing forward the U.N. reform process. [During recent budget discussions, members of the U.S. Congress noted that the U.N. had made substantial progress recently in implementing much-needed reforms, resulting in greater budgetary efficiency, and, as a result, the U.S. should acknowledge the U.N.'s progress by paying a certain percentage of the more than $1 billion in back dues that the U.S. owes the international organization.]

In addition to touching upon Mr. Udovenko's tenure at the U.N., at a press conference held at Ukraine's Mission on September 17, Mr. Yelchenko discussed the visit of Foreign Affairs Minister Borys Tarasyuk to the U.S., planned for September 21-24 (see related story above) and Ukraine's agenda at the U.N. for the upcoming year.

Among the key issues of importance to Ukraine is a greater emphasis on worldwide nuclear disarmament. According to Ambassador Yelchenko, the era of nuclear containment as a strategy is over, and the issue now is how to best stop this new process of rapid nuclear armament and proliferation. Ukraine, which was the first and, to date, the only state that voluntarily gave up its nuclear weapons has the right to demand that this proliferation be stopped and to be included in discussions of disarmament strategies.

Also on the agenda for the year is Ukraine's involvement in efforts to combat international terrorism, and a continued push for U.N. reforms.

In particular, Ukraine seeks ways to more judiciously assess its U.N. dues and debt. Ukraine owes the U.N. about $200 million, approximately two-thirds of which is old Soviet debt. Ukraine is willingly to pay off some of the Soviet debt, but not all. Ukraine is also appealing the unilateral increase in Ukraine's fee enacted by the U.N. in 1992.

The Mission will continue to push for Ukraine to occupy one of the rotating chairs in the U.N. Security Council (a position for which Slovakia is Ukraine's chief competitor) and to participate in U.N. peacekeeping missions. Ambassador Yelchenko predicted that a complete reform of the five-member U.N. Security Council - a permanent expansion aside from the possible inclusion of Germany or Japan - will not take simply a few years, "more likely 20 than five."

In Ukraine, the foreign policy is to stay the course: moving toward integration of Ukraine into Euro-Atlantic structures. Much work remains to be done administratively: ministries need to be organized to better work together towards this goal and legislation must be enacted to reflect Ukraine's continuum in relations with international organizations, according to Mr. Yelchenko.

The recent visit of French President Jacques Chirac to Ukraine was a great success, stated Mr. Yelchenko, noting that it reflected a 180-degree turnabout in France's stance to Ukraine, which had declared shortly after Ukraine's independence that it would never accept Ukraine into pan-European structures. Mr. Yelchenko speculated that France's original position probably reflected Russia's then-still powerful influence, France's fear that Ukraine would be a competitor, combined with the traditional conservatism and wariness of France.

"Personally I am very pleased," said Ambassador Yelchenko, "within a day we felt the change, as our U.N. colleagues from France immediately became more open, more approachable, began to consult with us. Now we must act upon and solidify all these changes."

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