Ukraine and Regional Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe

1 It is significant to note that the first foreign head of state to visit Ukraine after the July 1990 declaration was Hungarian President Arpad Goncz, and that Poland and Hungary were the first countries to recognize Ukraine's independence, in 1991.

2 Poland retains a common border only with the Russian Kaliningrad region, which is separated from Russia proper by Lithuania.

3 According to the 1989 census in Ukraine, the country's total population of 51.5 million included 219,000 Poles, 160,000 Hungarians, and 135,000 Romanians. At the same time, there are 300-400,000 Ukrainians in Poland, 50-150,000 in Slovakia, and 70,000 in Romania.

4 Under the pact, Stalin incorporated into the USSR the then-Romanian territories of Southern Bessarabia and Northern Bukovyna, both of which were occupied by Romania in 1918 as a result of the collapse of the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires.

5 See Zoltan Barany, `Visegrad Four Contemplate Separate Paths', Transition, 11 August 1995, p. 58.

6 Ukraine and its neighbors also signed several bilateral agreements on military cooperation. The first of these, signed with Poland in February 1993, promoted such forms of cooperation as the organizing of military exchange programs and the sharing of military training facilities. In May 1993, a similar agreement was concluded between Ukraine and Hungary.

7 See, for example, `Hopes and Fears of Central and Eastern Europe: Russia, Ukraine, and the Clinton Initiatives', pp. 14-18 in Report of the Second Conference of the IEWS Strategy Group on Strengthening Cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe (Warsaw, 25-27 February 1994); or Report of the IEWS Expert Workshop on `Perceptions of Insecurity and Strategic Dialogue between Russia and Central and Eastern Europe' (Moscow, 28-29 June 1994), pp. 12-15.

8 Author's interviews with senior Ukrainian officials from the Foreign Ministry and the presidential administration, October-December 1995.

9 See quotations from interviews by Foreign Minister Hennady Udovenko and First Deputy Foreign Minister Boris Tarasyuk in RFE/RL Daily Report, 5 December 1994.

10 Not surprisingly, the first question asked by Czech journalists on the eve of Kuchma's visit to Prague in April 1995, as well as by Czech officials during the visit, concerned Ukraine's attitude toward NATO enlargement. See Kuchma's interview in Lidove noviny, 25 April 1995.

11 Mytna statystyka zovnishn'otorhivel'nykh operatsii Ukrainy [Customs Data on Ukraine's Foreign Trade] (Kiev: Derzhavna mytna sluzhba Ukrainy, 1996).

12 In April, Kuchma paid an official visit to the Czech Republic, during which a bilateral treaty on Friendship and Cooperation was signed. In May and June, the prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia visited Kiev.

13 See statement by Volodymyr Horbulin, secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine and adviser on national security to the president, in Update on Ukraine (Kiev: Council of Advisers to the Parliament, June 1995); and interview by Boris Tarasyuk in Transition, no. 13, 28 July 1995, pp. 19-22.

14 Initially, it was emphasized by Kuchma in his address to the Parliamentary Assembly of the CoE on April 23, and in his speech at the Parliamentary Assembly of the WEU on June 5.

15 Oleksandr Pavliuk, `Ukrainian-Polish Relations: A Pillar of Regional Stability?', pp. 43-62 in Monika Wohlfeld, ed., The Effects of Enlargement on Bilateral Relations in Central and Eastern Europe, Chaillot Papers, no. 26, June 1997.

16 See, for example, Przemyslaw Grudzinski, `National Interest: European Institutions', pp. 9-21 in Ian Gambles, ed., A Lasting Peace in Central Europe?, Chaillot Papers, no. 20, October 1995. For an alternative approach, suggesting to add Ukraine to Central European countries, see Elena Zamfirescu, Mapping Central Europe (Clingendael Paper, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, May 1996), p. 57.

17 Address by Vaclav Havel at the NATO Workshop on Political and Military Decision Making in Warsaw, 21 June 1996 (Press Department, Office of the President of the Czech Republic), p. 5.

18 In this regard, the NATO-Ukraine Charter on Distinctive Partnership clearly defines Ukraine as an integral part of the CEE region.

19 Volodymyr Horbulin, `Our Goal, Our Fate: The Place of Ukraine in Modern Europe', Polityka i chas (Kiev, no. 1, January 1996), pp. 3-8. The idea was also expressed by Kuchma in his April 1996 speech at the CoE Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg.

20 From an interview with Polish Foreign Minister Dariusz Rosati on the results of his visit to Germany in Trybuna, 31 May 1996.

21 Ukraine is a part of the two Euroregions: the Carpathian Euroregion, which embraces border areas of Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, and Slovakia; and the Buh Euroregion, created in October 1995 and encompassing the Volyn region in Ukraine and four border provinces of Poland.