Presidents Order Governments to Agree On Debts

The treaty on the state border between Ukraine and Belarus, although signed long ago (Belarusian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka even joked that “we’ve seized 1200 km of the border without a single gunshot”), has not yet been ratified by the Belarusian parliament. The reason is Ukraine has not paid the ten- year-old debt it owes Minsk. At their Chernihiv summit on May 29, Presidents Kuchma of Ukraine and Lukashenka of Belarus instructed their governments to draw up a debt clearance agreement by June 15.

Nobody knows thus far how large the debt is, perhaps because Kyiv and Minsk, after coming to terms on the very existence of Ukrainian indebtedness in 1992, were still unable to select proper methods of assessment. One of the main problems was uncertainty about the currency exchange rate to be used in negotiations because the dollar rate was changing almost daily. Ukraine suggested in particular that the assessment methods already being applied with respect to Russia. Yet, Belarusian representatives note that the non-ratified status of the bilateral border agreement in fact poses no obstacles. Mr. Lukashenka’s spokesperson Natalia Petkevich said that, in the course of talks on an intergovernmental financial settlement agreement, Mr. Lukashenka was not enthusiastic about further discussing the debt amount, referring to “previously-made political decision on this matter.”

Moreover, the Belarusian president’s spokesperson said that Mr. Lukashenka had satisfied the Ukrainian side’s request to abolish consular fees for foreign experts en route to Ukraine via Belarus to carry out Chornobyl-related tasks. The point is that one can go from Slavutych, where Chornobyl power plant workers live, to the plant itself only across the territory of Belarus. These boundaries and roads were laid down in Soviet times.

There is one interesting coincidence: after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the Rome declaration on establishing the NATO-Russia Council, he was first visited by a European Union delegation led by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar of Spain. The first guest to visit Ukraine after the National Security and Defense Council decided to map out a strategy of Ukraine’s integration into the NATO-based security system was Mr. Lukashenka. “Belarus is carefully studying this decision,” the Belarusian leader was quoted by New Channel as commenting on the NSDC decision. Yet he added that “alliances apart, we must construct our own security system.”

The two presidents also agreed to implement a number of joint economic projects, including the production of tractors, fodder harvesters, and diesel engines in Ukraine. The pair solved the problems of Belarusian cargo transport across the territory and from the ports of Ukraine, Interfax-Ukraine reports. Three international documents were signed. There are no reports whether the presidents discussed the Eurasian Economic Community.