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http://www.russiajournal.com/news/index.shtml?nd=13893#n13893 Russia Journal June 26, 2002 Russia navy may hinder Ukraine NATO bid -"Ukraine needs to determine the status of (Russia's) Black Sea Fleet base because NATO criteria say that countries with foreign military on their territory may not be members of the alliance." -Volk said he believed the eventual removal of Russia's navy from Ukraine would be welcomed by NATO. "NATO is not enthusiastic about the Russian Black Sea Fleet," he said. KIEV - A high-ranking Ukrainian official said Monday that this former Soviet Republic's bid to join NATO may be hindered by the presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine. Serhiy Pirozhkov, deputy secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, announced that Ukraine will reopen talks with Russia about a 20-year lease now in effect dividing the port at Sevastopol between the Ukrainian and Russian Black Sea Fleets. "Ukraine needs to determine the status of (Russia's) Black Sea Fleet base because NATO criteria say that countries with foreign military on their territory may not be members of the alliance," the Interfax news agency quoted Pirozhkov as saying. After waffling for years between allegiance to Russia and the West, Ukraine notified NATO of its desire to join the alliance last month. Ukraine accelerated its westward movement after neighbor and key trade partner Russia - which had long protested NATO expansion - signed an agreement linking it closer to NATO last month. Despite cozier Russian relations with NATO, experts say Moscow will not welcome Ukraine's decision to renegotiate the headquarters of Russia's fleet. "I'm convinced that Russia's reaction will be negative and that Russia will try to force Ukraine to change, but I really don't think they will succeed," Yevgeny Volk, an international security expert at the Heritage Foundation think tank said by phone from Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry had no official comment. Volk said he believed the eventual removal of Russia's navy from Ukraine would be welcomed by NATO. "NATO is not enthusiastic about the Russian Black Sea Fleet," he said. "An obsolete fleet with no modernization is a source of tension and instability because excessive military potential in the region is hard to control. Reduction of the military threat is a must." Meanwhile, the head of NATO's information office in Kiev, Michel Durret, dismissed concerns that the presence of Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine could delay Ukraine's bid to join NATO. "We consider this a bilateral issue," said Durret. After the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, both countries argued fiercely over the historic port of Sevastopol, home to the former Soviet Black Sea Fleet. They eventually agreed to divide it and Ukraine granted Russia a lease to continue operations. Sevastopol, Russia's only warm water port, is on the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea but is populated largely by ethnic Russians. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! - Official partner of 2002 FIFA World Cup http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com --------------------------- ANTI-NATO INFORMATION LIST ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.bacIlu Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
