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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Romania Suggests to Ukraine Their Battalions Make Friends

15 December, 1998 - 00:00

On Decemder 9 in Kyiv the defense ministers of Ukraine and Romania, Oleksandr
Kuzmuk and Viktor Babiuk worked out the prospects for military cooperation
between the two countries. In addition to the traditional exchange of visits
and participation in UN peacekeeping operations, a new trait could appear
in the Ukrainian Romanian military relations - formation of a joint peacekeeping
battalion as a complement to the structure already established between
Ukraine and Poland.

Bucharest has persistently lobbied this idea for a long time because
for Romania, which wants to join NATO, it would be a sign that it really
has no conflicts in its relations with its neighbors. The alliance pays
particular attention to this. What else does Bucharest want from Kyiv and
Kyiv from Bucharest will be made public later - after planned meetings
of Romania's Defense Minister with Ukraine's President and Prime Minister.
It is obvious that there are far less problems between the servicemen of
the two countries than between politicians and top level officials - the
border and Black Sea continental shelf delimitation process between Ukraine
and Romania is making no progress. The parties display completely different
approaches, and both countries' diplomats do not rule out jointly turning
to the World Court.

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