Leonid Kuchma: “Neighborly” propositions are not an adequate response

The Central European summit in Brdo, near Ljubljana (Marshal Tito’s favorite retreat) has ended, yielding results that every country interpreted in its own way. For Ukraine, the event meant getting back to normal after a period of mild diplomatic isolation, and an opportunity to have its say and make inferences. President Kuchma familiarized his colleagues with the Ukrainian-NATO rapprochement strategy and theses of his European integration message. Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi and Austrian President Tomas Klestil confirmed that they awaited the Ukrainian president’s visit, and his German counterpart Johannes Rau said he was going to visit Ukraine. Moreover, Pres. Klestil is quoted by Interfax Ukraine as saying that “Europe’s stable future is impossible without Ukraine” and that “the European Union and NATO must find an optimum approach to cooperation with Ukraine.”

However, none of the EU countries’ presidents or leaders of candidate countries said anything about proposing a pattern and level of relations between Ukraine and the expanding Union. Leonid Kuchma believes that the Luxembourg meeting of the EU Council of Ministers, in terms of a strategy of relationships with “future neighbors of the expanded Union... shed light on the controversial approaches of the European Union to relations with Ukraine,” reports Interfax Ukraine. Mr. Kuchma further maintains that the concept of “future neighborhood” can hardly be described as an adequate response to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations, because it receives the status of neighbor owing to its geographic position; getting this status does not call for many sacrifices or efforts on the part of the reform-oriented elite. Mr. Kuchma’s question what the European-minded candidates will bring with them to the 2004 presidential elections, assuming that the EU will not have outlined the prospects of relationships with Ukraine, sounds more than logical, considering that the CE Joint Ukrainian Strategy will have expired by the time the EU expands and there will be little time left to work out a document to replace the partnership and cooperation agreement.

Today, there are no underlying principles indicating the level of relations that could serve as a compromise between both parties. The EU, for one, makes no mention of association with Ukraine.

The joint declaration reads that Central Europe is rallying over problems of the past and that history must be a topic of discussion rather than confrontation. In this context, Leonid Kuchma’s statement concerning Lviv’s Young Eagles Cemetery sounds quite optimistic. He hopes that “common sense will prevail and we, together with Kwasniewski, will shortly open this cemetery.” The Ukrainian president also said that the Cemetery of Young Eagles “is your memory and ours,” noting that “there must be no politicking, using the graves of fallen soldiers.” Mr. Kwasniewski’s response remains to be seen.