As a member of the official delegation of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych’s April 11-14 visit to Washington, D.C., I had the opportunity to witness the success of the trip.
Removal of highly enriched uranium
The first result was to pass on to Russia, and partially to the United States, the cost of removing Ukraine’s remaining stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. This was a good deal. A top member of our delegation told me that, according to the arrangement, some new scientific equipment for nuclear research is to be installed in Kharkiv by Americans. Thus, Ukraine will have access to new technologies and possibly more. There is still plenty of time for negotiating. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the uranium will be passed over incrementally through 2012.
Kyiv’s decision – to improve the security of nuclear materials – was the key that opened the way for Yanukovych’s bilateral meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama. The American president is no amateur when it comes to Ukraine’s potential concerning weapons of mass destruction and its transportation systems. As a U.S. senator, Obama was a member of the Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program to dismantle the strategic bombers Tu-22M Bear, Voyevoda missiles, known to NATO as SS-18 Satan and SS-22 and the explosives produced by the Pavlograd chemical plant.
Of course, the abandonment of highly enriched uranium also produced good publicity. Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post wrote on April 13 that “Viktor Yanukovych emerged … as an unlikely star among the four dozen foreign leaders President Obama gathered in Washington for his nuclear security summit.” He also got good publicity from an interview with CNN.
Yanukovych’s political leadership took center stage, contrasting with Obama’s refusal to meet up with ex-President Viktor Yushchenko at the general assembly of the United Nations on Sept. 24, 2009.
Restoring relations with China
The Ukraine-China relationship had been frozen five years ago. Neither Yushchenko nor ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko visited China, and no top officials from China came to Kyiv. In the official documents of the Chinese People’s Republic, the Orange Revolution was officially called “a coup d’etat of Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.” In Washington, China’s President Hu Jintao came forward first to meet Yanukovych. He also invited Yanukovych to visit his country as early as this year.
China Daily USA devoted a half-page to the meeting of Yanukovych and Hu Jintao. They quoted Stephen Sestanovich, who served between 1997 and 2001 as special ambassador in the former Soviet states, who said Ukraine has a lot of potential with China in the military sector, construction, telecommunications and auto industry.
President Viktor Yanukovych during meeting with Ukrainian diaspora in Washington, D.C., on April 12. (Ukrinform)
Attention to Chornobyl
During his meeting with United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon, Yanukovych announced an international conference to mark the 25-year anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster in 1986, and revival of work for the sarcophagus covering the damaged fourth reactor of the nuclear power plant.
Other Western counterparts were reminded how far behind they are in their financial commitments to close down Chornobyl, commitments that Yushchenko failed to follow up on.
Yanukovych laid a lot of valuable groundwork for the future during his Washington visit. After his meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, there was a leak of information that Russia is willing to pay more for leasing the Black Sea Fleet base in Sevastopol. Also, German Chancellor Angela Merkel invited Yanukovych to visit Berlin this year.
The Washington trip marked the start of active foreign relations by Yanukovych. Unlike Yushchenko and Tymoshenko, who while visiting foreign capitals behaved as if everyone owed them for the 2004 Orange Revolution, Yanukovych is making the rounds without this “credit of admiration.”
If he manages to win contracts and pledges of money for Ukraine’s economy, this is exactly what is needed. But this will not be appreciated by those who live by the themes of anti-Education Minister Dmytro Tabachnyk, the revival of national heroes and the protection of national history. These people see little connection between the economy and their own existence.
Viacheslav Pikhovshek is a former chief editor of news on 1+1 TV channel. He was also speech writer for former President Leonid Kuchma. He can reached at [email protected].
