Ukraine-Turkey: Trust Above All
Presidents Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and Ahmet Necdet Sezer have met. The two presidents agreed to increase trade turnover between Ukraine and Turkey to $2 billion and decided it necessary to develop cooperation in the defense industry and energy. Mr. Kuchma noted in this connection that “it will not be a disaster” for Ukraine if it loses the tender announced by Turkey for the purchase of a thousand tanks (the program’s total value is an estimated $4 billion). Interfax-Ukraine also quotes Mr. Sezer as making rather a statement daring from the historical perspective, “The Crimean Tatars are an important element of closeness and historic friendship between out two countries.”
As to the possible tank contract, the German press reported last spring that the announcement of the results expected late this year of the tender being held as part of a comprehensive Turkish armed forces re-equipment program, will be a pure formality. For Turkey has already opted unofficially for Germany, thus thanking it for supporting Turkey as a potential European Union membership candidate at the EU Helsinki summit a year ago. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said it is unlikely that the order for the whole thousand tanks will be placed with only one country: in all probability, an attempt will be made to diversify supply sources. Should the tender be won by a country other than Ukraine, this will mean, President Kuchma thinks, that “some other,” not technical and economic, factors will have prevailed, Interfax-Ukraine reports.
Simultaneously, Pres. Kuchma expressed hope that the decision to build a thousand apartments for the Crimean Tatars, made by former President of Turkey Suleiman Demirel is still valid. President Sezer said in his turn Turkey would continue to help Ukraine resettle the Crimean Tatars, declining, however, to offer any specifics. Turkey has in fact been almost the only state which offered financial assistance to help resettle the Tatars, much to the chagrin of the then Crimean authorities.
The presidents stated that the countries have no political problems with each other. However, Kuchma admitted the existence of collisions on commercial fishing and said Ukraine would continue to react toughly to the violation of its territorial waters by Turkish mariners: “Let them stay out of where they can’t go.” The Ukrainian President hopes that negotiations on this problem will soon be completed and an agreement signed.
The Ukrainian-Turkish negotiations in Ankara were of a “trustful character,” Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Anatoly Zlenko told Interfax-Ukraine. In the course of the bilateral talks, the two delegations headed by Presidents Leonid Kuchma and Ahmet Nedcet Sezer discussed the necessity of drawing up and adopting a ten to fifteen year program of long-term economic cooperation. It was agreed that the two countries’ mixed intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation will meet for the second time in Kyiv in December, and it is not ruled out that this commission could sign an agreement on the technological and financial cooperation between the t wo countries, the Ukrainian minister said. Mr. Kuchma invited Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit to take part in the session of this commission. Mr. Zlenko also said the Ankara talks revealed the names of the companies ready to invest their capital in Ukraine. This concerns, among other things, investing in the Crimean Soda Plant, the construction of a supermarket in Kyiv, and renovation of the Odesa port. The Black Sea “does not separate but unites our countries,” the Minister Zlenko stressed. Great attention was paid in the negotiations last Thursday to military-technical and energy cooperation. As the minister disclosed, President Kuchma also informed Turkish President Sezer about the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant situation and the measures the government of Ukraine is taking to shut it down and solve the social problems related to its closure.
