Leading Ukraine out of marginal state

Bratislava Security Forum GLOBSEC 2013, held on April 18-20 in the capital of Slovakia, has beaten all the records in the eight years of its existence. First, as Secretary General of the Slovak Atlantic Commission Robert Vass stated at the closing of this Forum, the number of the participants exceeded one million people, that came from 62 countries, which is also a record. Secondly, 133 speakers participated in GLOBSEC 2013. Thirdly, the forum events were covered by 132 journalists from 30 countries.

This security event was attended by about two dozens ministers of foreign affairs, defense ministers, prime ministers of Slovakia and Macedonia, as well as the president of Estonia.

At the opening of the forum, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stressed: “We – respected members of the European Union and NATO, who provide us with the highest level of security and stability. This forms the basis of our commitment to contribute actively to their further strengthening. Today, we are suppliers rather than consumers of security and stability, contributors of common economic prosperity, and suppliers of donor assistance.”

Meanwhile, the ministers of the Visegrad Group (V4) spoke more about the importance of this alliance for maintaining and enhancing cooperation in the region. In particular, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia Miroslav Lajcak said: “The purpose of creating this association was to multiply our voice and we achieved it. V4 makes us stronger both individually and as a group.”

Foreign Minister of Poland Radoslaw Sikorski, speaking about the role of the Visegrad Group in ensuring security in the region, said: “We are the shares that grow in a market that is experiencing depression. This imposes special responsibility on us.”

Meanwhile, his Czech counterpart Karel Schwarzenberg stressed: “We are developing cooperation not only among ourselves, but also with neighbor countries. If we work together, we can achieve more.”

Speaking about the foundation of the Visegrad Group, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Janos Martonyi said: “V4 is a special reaction to a specific situation and it served as preparation for NATO. We had to ask the question about who we are and give an honest answer to it, which we did: we are Central Europeans. During this time the global situation has changed fundamentally. And whoever will adapt to these changes fast and successful, will be the winner.”

We can only envy such cooperation of V4, who plan to get ready a combat group of 1,500 to 2,300 soldiers by 2016. By doing this they will confirm their contribution to common safety in practice.

Many issues have been discussed at Bratislava forum and it’s impossible to list them all. And the real highlight of GLOBSEC 2013 was the speech of political analyst, advisor of the Center of Strategic and International Studies Zbigniew Brzezinski. The author of this article was not able to hear the speech of the American political analyst himself because at that time I was interviewing Miroslav Lajcak.

Therefore, I shall refer to the former Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Oleh Shamshur, who listened to the speech delivered by Brzezinski and attended his press conference. “He has a very interesting global perspective on life, but I have not heard any new things that he did not mention before. You can tell that it is difficult for him to say something new. But he spoke quite interestingly about the place of Russia. He is not quite optimistic but rather cautiously optimistic about the future evolution of Russia due to the growing middle class there. This class is more cosmopolitan, more familiar with the things happening in the West. It seems that this class may transform Russia. But I’ve already heard this from him back at the time when he served as an Ambassador in Washington, then he spoke about the Russian youth. To which I always responded with all due respect that, as shown by sociological studies, Russian youth is more chauvinistic minded than their parents. I wouldn’t be optimistic about that,” said Shamshur.

According to him, Brzezinski repeatedly mentioned Ukraine in conjunction with Belarus, which was rather frustrating, as countries that could become members of the EU in the future. “He said that they should clearly decide for themselves where they want to move, who they want to be with, and, unfortunately, in 2005 nobody wondered about such things, since everything was clear. The fact that our partners have such questions is a reason to think not only for the government of the country, but also for all of us,” said Shamshur.

Former ambassador continued: “In the end, Brzezinski stressed that the threat to the world, to the smooth functioning of international relations is chaos, chaotic development of overall situation in the world and ways to manage this chaos. And the new partnership between the US and Europe, which may become the basis for further development of international relations, should become an answer to this.”

In this situation, it was very strange and awkward to note the absence of the representatives of Ukrainian authorities at this forum. Is Kyiv really not interested to hear the discussions of the Bratislava Security Forum, which has considerably grown by now and covers all aspects of international security at this point? On the other hand, it is a nice chance to express your own views on global processes and especially on what is happening in Europe or even in the neighboring countries, given that all four ministers of foreign affairs of the Visegrad Group participated in this forum this year. Besides, participants of the forum discussed the issue of energy security which is currently a major problem in Ukraine. Interestingly, diplomat Leonid Kozhara was initially on the list of this panel on energy security. But due to the rescheduling of the visit to Slovakia, which was initiated by Miroslav Lajcak, who attended the funeral of Margaret Thatcher in London on April 17, Ukrainian minister simply decided to ignore this forum. But they still could send somebody else, even Yurii Boiko, to explain Ukraine’s standpoint concerning this issue to the European community and also to discuss the prospects of shale gas production in Ukraine and how it can affect the price of oil and therefore the policy of Russia.

It is also not clear why the Ukrainian authorities did not use GLOBSEC 2013 to advance their arguments on the necessity of singing the Association Agreement, to explain to Europeans what has been done and what is being done to fulfill the conditions required for singing this document.

Shamshur believes that the authorities, not necessarily as speakers, should go to such forums and present their point of view. “I really liked the statement of the Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves that the new member states become more prominent. And it’s quite a big block, if you’d count the three Baltic countries, the Visegrad Four, and three Scandinavian countries. These are people, politicians that can influence the politicians in the EU. This should be taken into account, thus visits have to be made not only to Paris, but also to Bratislava, not just to Brussels, but also, when it’s necessary, to let’s say Budapest. Here, unfortunately, Ukraine’s standpoint is somewhere in the margins. And this will not change without the involvement of those, who have to professionally present the position of the state at the international level.”

BLITZ INTERVIEW

You need to be more serious and consistent in your efforts towards joining the European community

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Karel Schwarzenberg in his speech at the Security Forum said that Central European countries are directly interested in the development of Eastern European countries, introduction of European standards there and their joining to the European civilization. In an exclusive interview with The Day Czech Minister explained why there is no consensus in Europe on Ukraine, in particular, on the need to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine.

“I agree that the Agreement should be signed. It is in the interests of Ukraine and other countries, but above all, it is in the interest of Europe.”

What can the Czech Republic and other countries participating in the Visegrad Group do to convince Angela Merkel to sign the Agreement?

“We do not have any power tools to convince her. At the meeting of ministers of foreign affairs in Brussels in December we discussed these issues and said that it is necessary to do so. And now we have to work at it. We want to have changes, but this cannot be done in a week. You need to constantly work on it and then you will succeed.”

In your opinion, why Europe has no consensus on Ukraine, in particular, the need for signing this Agreement. Some countries make very high demands, even ultimatums.

“There is a number of reasons. First of all, it is the political situation in Ukraine. Over the past 20 years there were many surprises. Almost every Ukrainian administration did not make quite a positive impression. However, sometimes it seems that Ukrainians do not know themselves what they really want. Also, in Ukraine, many politicians defend their private interests rather than the interests of the state. This causes great frustration in dealing with Ukraine. Frankly, sometimes even I feel disappointed.”

What would you say about the most recent actions of the Ukrainian authorities, in particular the release of Yurii Lutsenko? What do you think about it?

“Yes, there are some positive signs. The last meeting in Brussels with the leadership of Ukraine was successful. But, of course, Ukraine and its president should understand that the EU is a community of values. The government claims that it chooses the path of the rule of law in Ukraine, and yet it seems that at times it influences politics more than it should. Of course, this creates serious problems for Ukraine in the process of its rapprochement to the EU. You need to be more serious and consistent in your efforts towards joining the European community. The conditions of the EU are clearly outlined – the rule of law and democracy.”

You may have heard the saying: we built Italy and now we need to educate Italians. Now we can say that we built Europe but do not have Europeans yet. Why did this happen? What can you say about it?

“This is an interesting question. It takes generations to make such things happen. You can see that some people in Europe feel more European. But this has not become a common feeling. We would need a hundred years to make this happen.”