ARMENIA AND UKRAINE HAVE BOTH GENERALITIES AND DIFFERENCES IN RELATIONS
WITH EUROPEAN UNION AND CIS
YEREVAN, AUGUST 25, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenia and Ukraine have both
generalities and differences in relations with the European Union
and the CIS. Olexander Bozhko, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Armenia,
expressed such an opinion in his exclusive interview to the Noyan
Tapan correspondent. "Ukraine and Armenia today set similar tasks in
front of them in the sphere of foreign policy, that is integration
to European structures, future development of the dialogue with
the NATO," the Ambassador said. He mentioned that in 2005, Kiev
started implementation of the Ukraine-EU actions plan, and the EU
gave Ukraine status of country having market economy already in late
2005. Negotiations are continued with Brussels in the direction of
simplifying visas, with a perspective of Ukrainian citizens’ entering,
in future, EU countries without visa.
"Negotiations with the European Union concerning signing a free trade
agreement are among the programs,"Mr.Bozhko continued. The Ambassador
stated that holding Armenian-Ukrainian constant consultations
concerning the issue of the EU relations is planned, as it is
expected that the Armenia-EU actions plan will soon be adopted. "We
see a good perspective for cooperation of Ukraine and Armenia in the
European direction," he said. "The same may be said in the sense of
the Ukraine’s relations with the Euro-Atlatic Alliance as well. Kiev
started implementation of the Ukraine-NATO actions plan in 2002,
and today, it has a great experience in that direction," O.Bozhko
said. At the same time, the Ambassador mentioned that Ukraine has
never had and does not have the issue of joining the Collective
Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) on the agenda of its foreign
policy. "It’s just here that approaches of Ukraine and Armenia differ
at some extent. Yerevan believes that it’s able to develop at the same
time relations in two directions: both with NATO and with CSTO, and
as we can understand, arising of the state existing in the region,
such a format is today the best for Armenia in the sense of the
national security," O.Bozhko said.
As for the CIS, Mr.Bozhko mentioned that Ukraine has been and remains
a participant of that union, though it is not a CIS member as it
did not sign its charter. "I, as a diplomate who twice (in 1993-1996
and 2001-2005) headed the Russia and CIS Department of the Foreign
Ministry of Ukraine, must specially mention that Ukraine has always
presented initiatives in the CIS issue, which, and it’s a pity, were
not perceived by some other members of the CIS for some reasons,"
the Ambassador of Ukraine to the RA said.