Ukraine Wants Cheaper CIS

Finally, Ukraine has made public its long expected new approach to the issue of reforming the Commonwealth of Independent States. This took place at a meeting of the intergovernmental working group on CIS reform in Minsk.

The Ukrainian position was articulated by Anton Buteiko, head of Ukrainian delegation and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The Ukrainian CIS concept has been being worked out for two years. Its main points are that CIS has to be an organization aimed at conducting negotiations and consultations, introducing a free trade zone within it, and developing commercial and economic relations between the CIS member states, period. At least, Buteiko himself said this at a briefing at the Ukrainian MFA. All other issues, he believes, should be taken out of the CIS framework, and the Commonwealth has to become cheaper for its members.

In accordance to Kyiv's point of view, the CIS should not duplicate other international organizations such as the UN, Council of Europe, OSCE, and others in which CIS member states participate. And CIS activity itself should assist its members to get closer to such international organizations as the European Union, GATT, WTO, etc.

One can easily see that this stand, supported by Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, and some other former Soviet republics, is in fact opposite to Moscow's: to convert the CIS into an organization with wide authority and make its decisions binding on all members. The conflict between them, each supported by several CIS member states, is supposed to be resolved at the next working session.

In fact, Ukraine is demonstrating a desire for real CIS reforms which would not allow a single country to dominate the others and, sooner or later, would lead it to its natural death as it becomes unnecessary. Diplomats, of course, do not say so. But everyone knows that without a Ukrainian-Russian compromise the CIS has no future.