Since the establishment of the Ukraine Republic after the break up of the
former Soviet Union, Israel and the latter developed close working
relations. These facilitated the immigration of tens of thousands of Jews
from that republic. Ukraine sought Israel's intervention in improving its
economic situation, by using its good offices in the United States and
elsewhere. During the visit of Foreign Minister Gennadi Udovenko, the two
countries signed agreements on trade and tourism. Text:
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres met yesterday (Tuesday), 11.07.95, with his
Ukrainian counterpart, Gennadi Udovenko. During their meeting, the
following points were raised:
Ukraine sees Israel as a special partner and views its relationship with
Israel in strategic terms. The foundation of Ukrainian-Israeli relations
are the 300,000 Jews of Ukrainian origin in Israel.
Ukraine would like to see a tripartite strategic partnership - although
not a military alliance or an economic union - between Israel, Ukraine and
the United States, which would not be necessarily aimed at any other
country. Mr. Udovenko discussed the issue of Ukraine's draft legislation
on behalf of its ethnic minorities, including Jews. He noted that the
Council of Europe recently praised Ukraine's laws on this issue.
Mr. Udovenko expressed an interest in Israel's position in regard to
the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and said that he believes that
Israel's and Ukraine's situations vis-a-vis the NPT are similar.
He also requested that negotiations on Israeli-Ukrainian economic
agreements - which will facilitate enhanced mutual trade and investments -
be speeded up.
In his remarks, Foreign Minister Peres said that Israel would be pleased
to cooperate with Ukraine on economic issues. However, he rejected any
similarity between Israel's and Ukraine's position regarding the nuclear
threat, given that Israel's existence is threatened by several countries
-such as Iraq and Iran - that are declaring their intention to destroy it
and are making efforts to equip themselves with nuclear weapons, despite
their having signed the NPT. He added that Israel will be prepared to sign
the NPT only when peace is established in the region.
The two foreign ministers also discussed several agreements which are in
various stages of preparation, such as agreements on the prevention of
double taxation, the cancellation of diplomatic visas and the adding of a
clause on insurance to a current investment protection agreement. In
addition, the ministers signed two agreements on trade and tourism. (The
Ukrainian delegation also included the tourism minister, the deputy
foreign trade minister and President Leonid Kravchuk's political
advisor.)