Novoozerne, October 8 (Interfax) - Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko on Thursday called for the earliest possible resumption of Ukrainian-Russian efforts to settle disputes between the two countries over the location of parts of the border between the two countries.
“We should do everything possible to put the mechanism of the interstate commission in operation,” Yuschenko told a news conference in the village of Novoozerne, Crimea region, in reference to a Ukrainian-Russian commission appointed to seek solutions to the disputes. “We should go over the solution of all border problems as soon as possible.”
The president said that on three occasions this year he had ordered the Foreign Ministry to try to have frontier talks with Russia resumed.
“It seems to me we’ve had 29 rounds [of talks] and have talked through all we wanted to. There are no problems today that can slow down the demarcation of the land border between Ukraine and Russia,” Yuschenko said.
“There are no problems, the procrastination with the demarcation of [the] land [border] is apparently politically motivated,” he added.
He said demarcation of the sea border between the two countries is a more serious problem.
“But I asserted and assert that Ukraine will never give up its Tuzla Island. It is an inseparable part of our territory. And we will demand recognition of this. The rest can be settled, including with interstate guarantees, – the accessibility of the Kerch Strait for the passage of civilian and military ships of the Russian Federation, the terms, and the like. Because it’s absolutely easy and simple to reach agreements on these things, but the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be respected,” Yuschenko said.
He also suggested putting issues of border control, visa policy, and the state of border checkpoints on the commission’s agenda. He complained that checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Russian border are in a much worse state than those on Ukraine’s western borders and that this is a factor behind “the flourishing of shadow trade.”
