UKRAINIAN EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PROPOUNDS EUROPEAN IDENTITY.

According to an intelligence assessment just issued in London, Ukraine is sliding inexorably toward Russia (“Global Intelligence Red Alert,” November 12). This is not the vision of Ukraine’s incumbent executive leadership. Using the occasion of neighboring Poland’s eightieth anniversary, President Leonid Kuchma declared in a televised address that Ukraine has set its sights on Europe and is determined to “overcome all obstacles on the road that leads to the European family.” Kuchma defined Ukraine as a “Central European” nation which is called upon to catch up with its Western neighbors in terms of economic reforms and to “maximize its contribution to the stability and security of the region and of all Europe.” During the informal summit held on November 11 in Warsaw by the Polish, Hungarian, Ukrainian and three Baltic presidents, Kuchma “repeatedly stressed Ukraine’s European choice” and its goal to “draw close to the European Union,” Kuchma’s Chief Foreign Policy Adviser Volodymyr Ohryzko reported (DINAU, UNIAN, November 11, 12).

The contribution to Europe’s security is being offered in partnership with NATO. The allied headquarters in Brussels announced yesterday the NATO-Ukraine Commission has met to review NATO-Ukraine joint activities in 1998 and plan activities for 1999. The Ukrainian side expressed satisfaction with NATO’s decision to station two liaison officers in Kyiv–a breakthrough decision–in order to enhance implementing joint activities. The allied countries welcomed the adoption of Ukraine’s State Program on Cooperation with NATO for the period 1999-2001, just signed by Kuchma (M2 Communications, November 12). Fleshing out the NATO-Ukraine Charter for Distinctive Partnership, the Ukrainian State Program has been described as the most comprehensive and far-reaching of all programs of cooperation between NATO and the individual Partner countries (see the Monitor, November 11).–VS

OSCE PROPOSALS WELCOMED BY ARMENIA AND KARABAKH.