Collective wisdom
Kyiv Security Symposium urges to enhance it. Will the Ukrainian government heed this call?
Ukraine is willing and capable of joining the European and international security debate. Proof of this is the 4th Kyiv Security Forum (KSF), which took place in the Ukrai-nian capital on November 11-12, on the initiative of Arsenii Yatseniuk’s Discover Ukraine Foundation, in collaboration with Chatham House (UK), the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation (Ukraine), the German Marshall’s Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation (US), NATO Information and Documentation Center (NIDC), Den/The Day, and UNIAN. Among the forum participants were some 300 internationally known politicians, diplomats, experts, as well as around 50 domestic and foreign media representatives. This year’s KSF was entitled “Changing the Security Paradigm in a Fragmented World. European Dimension.”
Most of the participants agreed that this year’s forum offered a big enough playground for toying with the concepts of international security pattern transformations that are underway, as well as with the steps that had to be taken to enhance Ukrainian, European, and international security in the first place.
Ukrainian experts demonstrated their understanding of the issue, saying it wasn’t possible to act on a mind-your-own-business basis; that each country’s ideas and suggestions should be considered in the strengthening of domestic and international security. In his opening address Arsenii Yatseniuk, the forum’s initiator, ex-Foreign Mi-nister of Ukraine, leader of the Front of Changes, stated: “Our world is faced with mind-boggling challenges, something no country, Ukraine included, can meet [single-handedly]. Therefore, it is worth considering the problems facing Ukraine from the same angle as those facing the world.” He added that he was sure that Ukraine could become a pillar of international stability.
Pavlo Klimkin, Deputy Foreign Minister of Ukraine, noted that the future security system could produce this security for itself: “The system of European values remains the key factor. Ukraine should introduce European values, and soft-power ideas, while the EU should also learn to produce and correctly apply this soft-power.” He added that the current Ukrainian administration, by altering its foreign political course in the non-bloc direction, would weaken rather than strengthen this security system: “The proclamation of Ukraine’s non-bloc status is a negative factor for Ukraine. I wouldn’t want to see Ukraine change from a participant into a target of this security debate.” He went on to say that the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet remained a destabilizing factor for Ukraine, especially considering that Ukraine had no security guarantees at the moment.
Ukrainian experts’ concerns are echoed by their counterparts in the West. Pierre Hassner, CERI-Sciences Po (Paris, France), quoted the US diplomat, George F. Kennan, as saying that Russia saw its neighbors as enemies or vassals: “It is important for Russia not to regard Ukraine and Georgia as its vassals, or as a sphere of its privileged interests. The great powers must play the game by the rules. Russia should realize this. Russia’s suspicious attitude is a big obstacle for European security.”
He went on to say that, despite the fact that Ukraine isn’t likely to become a member of the EU or NATO soon, it must control its future through democracy and effective governance.
A number of other experts stressed the necessity of effective governance, among them Pavlo Koval, chairman of the VR Committee on Ukraine-EU Cooperation. He noted that stability, a matter constantly raised by those currently in power in Ukraine, must not consist in one party monopolizing political power, for this will lead to stagnation; that is, to bring Ukraine closer to the EU, the coalition and opposition should combine efforts to establish a group that will specialize in European issues, the visa-free regime, and making association and free trade area agreements: “This will show that there is mutual understanding in Ukraine. Poland’s experience indicates that politicians must speak the same language in the foreign policy domain. Ukraine should follow in Europe’s footsteps, demonstrating a strong government and a matching opposition.”
Whether those currently in power in Ukraine will heed the Ukrainian and foreign experts’ recommendations is anyone’s guess. The bad sign was that nobody from Bankova St. [where the president’s residence is located – Ed.] was present at the forum. The organizing committee informed that Andrii Yermolaiev, director at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, who was scheduled to make his presentation, had been summoned to the Presidential Administration on a top priority basis.
