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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

UKRAINE HAS NO INTENTION TO JOIN NATO, BUT SUPPORTS NEW INTEGRATION INITIATIVES IN CIS, SAYS PRESIDENT KUCHMA

3 March, 1998 - 00:00

During his February 27 meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Ukrainian President Kuchma assured him that Ukraine has no plans to join NATO. The same day, President Kuchma and his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin signed a joint declaration calling on the leaders of all CIS states to hold an international conference to prepare new well-balanced proposals on further cooperation and integration of CIS countries.

On February 27, the presidents of Ukraine and Russia also signed a long-term agreement on economic cooperation for 1998-2007. During Kuchma's visit to Russia, the other three international agreements were signed on information cooperation and on cooperation in communications, culture, and education. Following the signing of the long-term economic cooperation agreement, President Yeltsin said that the agreement will allow the doubling of bilateral trade. Leonid Kuchma and Boris Yeltsin stressed that further improvement of trade and the economic relations between Ukraine and Russia will cause structural changes in the economies of both countries and might lead to uniformity of their national legislation.

According to Russia's president press secretary Sergei Yastrzhembsky, both presidents agreed to hold an informal meeting in the Crimea in June, 1998 and to open a Russian general consulate in Sevastopol, as well as initiated a four-party summit of the leaders of Transdnistria, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine in Odesa to help resolve the Transdnistrian problem.

 

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