19 March 1999

TEXT: STATE DEPT. SPECIAL ADVISOR WILSON ON NATO-UKRAINE RELATIONS

(3/18: Ukraine will help celebrate NATO's 50th anniversary) (1930)

Kiev -- Ukraine enjoys a special relationship -- a distinctive
partnership -- with NATO, and the 50th Anniversary NATO Summit to be
held next month in Washington will be a special event for Ukraine as
President Leonid Kuchma meets with the 19 Alliance leaders for the
first-ever NATO-Ukraine Summit.

"Who would have imagined that a free Ukraine, sovereign and
independent, would celebrate with NATO 50 years of success in
safeguarding freedom and democracy in Europe?" asked U.S. State
Department official Ross Wilson in a speech March 18 in Kiev. Wilson,
principal deputy special advisor to the secretary of state for the New
Independent States, addressed participants at a conference that
discussed the NATO anniversary and Summit.

Wilson said Ukraine has good reason to proud of what it has achieved
through the NATO-Ukraine Commission and the Partnership for Peace
(PFP). He noted that Ukraine has hosted several successful
international joint military exercises, a NATO Liaison Office will
open soon in Kiev, and the government has offered Yavoriv -- a modern
military training center -- for use in PFP exercises.

Ukraine is the first and only state of the former Soviet Union to
develop and propose a Program of Cooperation with NATO, Wilson said.
"This program will provide for Ukraine to make a permanent
contribution to Euro-Atlantic security," he said, adding that NATO is
committed to helping Ukraine implement needed reforms to make it a
full and reliable partner.

Wilson acknowledged that some observers, including some in Ukraine,
are skeptical of NATO enlargement and what they see as a provocative
policy. "These feelings are not justified," he said. "NATO is, and
will remain, a defensive alliance, not aimed against any country, but
targeted at peace."

At NATO's rebirth, he said, the Alliance seeks to "bring together
former Cold War adversaries in a new, mutually beneficial commitment
to peace and stability, and to a Europe genuinely whole and free."

Ukraine, he concluded, will have a prominent place at the creation of
the new NATO, the NATO of the 21st century. "That gives Americans, and
I hope Ukrainians," he said, "great optimism for the future."
 
Following is a text of his remarks:

(Begin text)

"UKRAINE AND THE FUTURE OF NATO"

Ross L. Wilson, Principal Deputy Special Advisor to the Secretary of
State for
the New Independent States

At Conference on "NATO at 50: Prelude to the Washington Summit"
Kiev, Ukraine
March 18, 1999

Secretary Horbulin, Ambassador Pifer, ladies and gentlemen, I am
pleased and honored to represent the United States here today at the
opening of this conference. This meeting could not be more timely.
Last week, Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic formally joined the
North Atlantic Alliance. In five weeks President Kuchma will meet with
the 19 leaders of the Alliance for the first ever NATO-Ukraine Summit.
That meeting, the NATO Summit itself, and the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council Summit will lay critically important foundation
stones of European security for the 21st century. As we celebrate the
50th anniversary of NATO, we will also lay the groundwork for the next
50 years of peace in Europe.

Ukraine enjoys a special relationship -- a distinctive partnership --
with NATO. It has developed this partnership through the NATO-Ukraine
Commission and engagement in the Partnership for Peace. It has hosted
several successful international joint military exercises. A NATO
Liaison Office will open this spring here in Kiev, expanding NATO's
direct involvement here based on the on-going work of the NATO
Information and Documentation Center. Ukraine has offered Yavoriv, a
modern military training and exercise center, for use in PFP
exercises.

Who in this room, who in Ukraine and, indeed, who in NATO would have
dreamed 10 years ago that this would be possible? Who would have
imagined that a free Ukraine, sovereign and independent, would
celebrate with NATO 50 years of success in safeguarding freedom and
democracy in Europe?

Ukraine has good reason to be proud of what it has achieved. Foreign
Minister Borys Tarasyuk spoke last week about Ukraine's "European
choice" -- its vital interest in making this country an inseparable
part of the European family to which it belongs. For us Americans,
there is equally one fundamental and enduring truth: the well-being of
the United States depends in large measure on what happens in Europe.
The United States will not prosper without an economically vibrant
Europe; it will not be safe without a secure and peaceful Europe.
These ideas are what join the Alliance, our partners, and, I think,
our two countries together.

NATO, Ukraine, and our partners are creating a framework of stability
and security that is consolidating the integration of market
democracies of Europe across the whole Euro-Atlantic area. The
NATO-Ukraine Summit will offer an opportunity to review the
distinctive partnership that was established with the NATO-Ukraine
Charter signed in 1997. This partnership already has borne fruit. In
Washington, NATO leaders will applaud this positive record and look
ahead. They will discuss with President Kuchma Ukraine's future NATO
policy and our mutual goals for working together to strengthen peace
and security.

Ukraine has developed and proposed an ambitious Program of Cooperation
with NATO up to 2001 -- the first and only state of the former Soviet
Union to do so. This program will provide for Ukraine to make a
permanent contribution to Euro-Atlantic security. NATO members are
committed to helping Ukraine to implement this program and, more
broadly, to pursue the economic and political reforms that will bring
the prosperity and stability it needs to be a full and reliable
partner.

The NATO Summit will lay the groundwork for, and express NATO's vision
of, a more integrated Europe and a stronger transatlantic link. Our
central Summit goal is to adapt NATO to meet the challenges of the
21st century.

This 21st century NATO will be a larger, more flexible alliance. It
will reaffirm its Article V commitment, that an attack on one is an
attack on all. This remains the core mission of the Alliance. But we
are also looking to adapt NATO to the new challenges we will face in
coming decades. This means having the right forces, doctrines and
capabilities to allow NATO, when necessary, to address such challenges
as ethnic strife and regional conflict that directly affect NATO's
security, but which lie beyond NATO territory.

The new NATO will also be capable of working in partnership with other
nations and organizations to advance security, prosperity and
democracy for the entire transatlantic area. It will remain the
primary means for Europeans and North Americans to act together --
politically and militarily.

Some speculate that we seek some kind of "global" role for NATO. We
don't. NATO is a Euro-Atlantic organization, not a global one. It acts
only when there is a consensus among its members, and with respect for
the purposes and principles of the United Nations. NATO's job is to
meet threats to common Alliance interests, working in partnership with
others to enhance and protect the security of the Euro-Atlantic area.

Some observers, including here in Ukraine, are skeptical. They
criticize NATO and its opening to the East as some provocative thing
aimed at them. These feelings are not justified. The growing number of
Ukrainian officers and soldiers who work in NATO headquarters and keep
the peace in the former Yugoslavia are emblematic of a new order. NATO
is, and will remain, a defensive alliance, not aimed against any
country, but targeted at peace. This is a reality that Ukrainians can
testify to based on their own experience.

We can make an interesting historical parallel. At its birth, NATO
incorporated countries that had fought a brutal war and tied them
together in a commitment to mutual defense. Now, at its rebirth at the
dawn of a new century, NATO seeks to do the same thing: bring together
former Cold War adversaries in a new, mutually beneficial commitment
to peace and stability, and to a Europe genuinely whole and free.

We can think about NATO's adaptation in terms of three key policy
areas: new missions, new members, and stronger partnerships.

First, new missions. NATO needs to remain prepared to defend the
territorial integrity of NATO member states and to prevent, deter and,
if necessary, respond to a broader spectrum of possible threats to
Alliance interests. These include the proliferation of biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons and their means of delivery, regional
conflicts beyond NATO's territory -- as in Bosnia and Kosovo -- and
transnational threats such as terrorism.

Second, new members. NATO is now welcoming as allies the Czech
Republic, Hungary and Poland. The opening of the Alliance is a natural
consequence of a peaceful, undivided and democratic Europe growing
together. The Alliance will reaffirm that the door to new members
remains open, an act designed to encourage integration among states
that have suffered too much from division and isolation. The Alliance
will act to strengthen the candidacies of those who seek membership by
enhancing practical military cooperation and political dialogue with
NATO.

Third, stronger partnerships. The Alliance will intensify its work
with all partner nations, regardless of possible aspirations to
membership, to extend security and stability throughout this broader
community.

It will do this through a new Political-Military Framework and a
NATO-Partner coalitions initiative to facilitate joint crisis response
and to provide for a more operational partnership; through continued
strengthening of the NATO-Ukraine distinctive partnership; and through
further development of NATO-Russia relations under the Founding Act.
 
The NATO-Ukraine Summit is a centerpiece of this effort. Ukraine's
bilateral cooperation with Poland in the Polish-Ukrainian Battalion
serves as an example of the type of regional cooperation we hope will
grow. Ukraine's offer of Yavoriv as a training facility for NATO and
partner exercises is another example of Ukrainian leadership in
reinforcing regional peace and security.

NATO's initiatives toward its partners will be a major step toward a
21st century NATO that is able to cope with the real security
challenges that we are likely to face.

Helping to put Bosnia on the path to peace is a good example of new
missions and why our alliance must continue to adapt. It took
coordinated air strikes and a major peace implementation force to put
Bosnia on a path toward peace.

As we meet here, NATO and Europe confront another test in Kosovo.
There is no guarantee in the end that NATO's contribution will in fact
be able to help re-establish peace. But neither Americans nor
Europeans can nor want to try to do so without NATO. Kosovo requires
an international cooperative approach involving NATO, its partners,
the OSCE, the EU, the UN, and the Contact Group. NATO's cooperation
with these fora in Kosovo underscores the interest of the Alliance
members in building relations between the mutually reinforcing
institutions of the new Europe.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Washington Summit will be one of the last
summits of the 20th century, but should also be considered the first
summit of the 21st century. Ukraine will have a prominent place at the
creation of the new NATO. The Summit provides a chance for North
Americans and other members of the Euro-Atlantic Community to prove,
politically and in practice, that we do indeed have common interests
and values, that we are capable of defending them together, and that
we will have a Europe genuinely whole and free. That gives Americans,
and I hope Ukrainians, great optimism for the future.

Thank you.

(End text)

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