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Text of a resolution by the Ukrainian Supreme Council on
Ukrainian-NATO Relations adopted on 23 April 1999 in Kiev

Dynamic changes in the geopolitical situation in the modern one-polar world, the complexity and volatility of the military and political situation in Europe, and the continuous condition of crisis inside Ukraine explain the need to step up efforts intended to enhance its international position, uphold its national interests, and ensure its reliable security and defense capability. As necessary preconditions for that, the Ukrainian Supreme Council considers the consistency, balanced nature, and predictability of Ukrainian foreign policy, its multidirectional character, and the expansion of Ukraine's relations with other states and international organizations based on principles of balance and mutual respect, equality and mutual interests, openness and mutual understanding, refusal to join military blocs, and noninterference in internal affairs to be in keeping with the rule, "Individual security through the security of all." This perception should determine also Ukraine's position on its participation in the systems of regional, European, and universal security.

As Ukraine's relations with European and Euro-Atlantic political, economic, and security structures are of momentous importance for the state and the right to set foreign policy principles belongs, according to the Ukrainian Constitution, exclusively to the Ukrainian Supreme Council, it is an inadmissible fact that the parliament has been, for various reasons, practically separated from defining the course of cooperation with the above structures. This also applies to defining Ukraine's position in its relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The Ukrainian Supreme Council never received for examination basic documents that determine the essence of and lay a legal groundwork for Ukraine's so-called "special partnership" relations with NATO. In particular, they include the Framework document on NATO's Partnership for Peace Program (8 February 1994, Kiev), the Charter on special partnership between Ukraine and NATO (9 July 1997, Madrid), and the Memorandums on mutual understanding between the Ukrainian Government and NATO on establishing the NATO Information and Documentation Center in Ukraine (7 May, 1997, Kiev) and on the appointment of NATO liaison officers in Ukraine (9 December 1998, Brussels). The State Program for Cooperation Between Ukraine and NATO Until 2001, approved by the presidential edict of 4 November 1998, was not submitted to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for examination, either. A feasibility study devoted to the expenditures on the performance of obligations under this Program has not been conducted. Nor have been identified sources of financing to cover those expenditures, which burden heavily the Ukrainian national budget and, consequently, taxpayers.

As part of the agreements on cooperation with NATO, military exercises with the participation of foreign Army units are regularly conducted on the territory of Ukraine. However, decisions to allow those units into Ukrainian territory were never, in violation of the Ukrainian Constitution, sent to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for approval. Ukraine's one-sided orientation toward full integration with NATO, imposed by certain forces, and attempts to drag it into this Alliance, which is a military-political bloc, are negatively viewed by a considerable part of the country's population and complicate relations with CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] member states--above all, with our closest neighbors, the Russian Federation and Belarus. Many citizens are concerned about the disturbed balance of forces in Europe caused by NATO's eastward expansion to western borders of nuclear-free Ukraine, possible deployment of nuclear weapons on the territory of the new NATO members, radical revision of the Alliance's concept, and its recent actions, particularly in connection with the internal Yugoslav conflict around Kosovo. The arbitrary expansion of a list of "threats" to which the NATO leadership intends to react by resorting to forcible actions outside the territory of the Alliance member states, using military force without the consent of the UN Security Council, and debasing the role of the United Nations on issues related to security and cooperation in Europe not only profoundly changes the character and place of NATO in the system of the international relations declared when the bloc was created, but it violates the basic principles of international law, particularly provisions of Article 7 of the UN Charter, which specifies exclusive prerogatives of the UN Security Council on maintaining peace and international security, and thwarts the accords on arms control and disarmament in Europe.

The tragic events in the past days, the massive bombings of the Union Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO troops, have positively proved that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an aggressive military bloc whose leadership has usurped the right to punish any sovereign state, while disregarding the UN Charter and the norms of international law and human morality.

The disregard of NATO states for the established international legal norms and the use of the right of force in international relations cast doubts as to whether the Alliance can assume its self-declared role of a peacemaking and stabilizing factor on the continent in the new historic conditions and are unacceptable for Ukraine and the entire world community. It is becoming the archimportant task for international politics to prevent the use of force to settle international problems from becoming a habit and to avert a new arms race spiral, which the environment will not survive.

The Ukrainian Supreme Council believes that the issue of ensuring mutual understanding between the NATO member states and the states that are not members of that military and political bloc can only be handled in the context of formulating an all-European system of collective security based on political, not military, factors and the balance of national interests of the member states on the condition of strict compliance in relations with them, as well as in relations with non-European subjects of international law, with generally recognized norms of international law, particularly provisions of the UN Charter.

The Ukrainian Supreme Council considers the NATO leadership's plans to expand the sphere of possible forcible actions by the Alliance outside the territory of its member states and to carry out any of NATO's forcible actions without the UN Security Council mandate extremely dangerous for the international peace and security of mankind. The Ukrainian Supreme Council condemns the bloc's violent actions against sovereign Yugoslavia as unjustified and antihumane. At the same time, the Ukrainian Supreme Council condemns any ethnic purges and speaks against them wherever they take place.

Considering the above, the Ukrainian Supreme Council resolves:

1. While carrying out measures as part of the cooperation with international, including European and Euro-Atlantic, structures, committees of the Ukrainian Supreme Council, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers, and all the government institutions must consistently and firmly uphold the state interests of Ukraine and its people in compliance with the Ukrainian Constitution and the nonallied status of Ukraine proclaimed in the Declaration of Ukrainian Sovereignty and confirmed in the Basic Guidelines of Ukrainian Foreign Policy, which does not rule out cooperation with the existing and emerging universal and regional security systems operating in compliance with provisions of the UN Charter, but which excludes entry into military-political blocs.

2. Taking into account changes that occurred in the past years in the geopolitical situation and Ukraine's domestic and international situation, it should be deemed necessary to hasten approval, in compliance with Article 85, Section 5, of the Ukrainian Constitution, of domestic and foreign policy principles and to introduce corresponding changes in the Concept (the foundation of the state policy) of Ukrainian national security and the Ukrainian military doctrine, while clearly defining conditions of Ukraine's participation in international peacekeeping activities and cooperation with international collective security systems and strictly observing the nonallied status of Ukraine. The Supreme Council Committee for National Security and Defense, in conjunction with other Supreme Council committees and other relevant ministries and central bodies of the Ukrainian executive branch of power, should submit, within the next three months, for examination by the Ukrainian Supreme Council proposals on this issue, taking into consideration the fact that, in compliance with the Ukrainian Constitution, the national security fundamentals and the organization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are determined exclusively by Ukrainian laws.

3. Due to the aggressive nature of the new doctrine and practical actions taken by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, it should be deemed necessary to examine the character of the entire set of relations between Ukraine and NATO. The Supreme Council Committees for National Security and Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Relations With the CIS, together with relevant state bodies, should submit proposals on this issue within the next two months.

4. The Ukrainian president, as the guarantor of compliance with the Ukrainian Constitution, is recommended to:

• undertake measures to ensure strict compliance with provisions of the Ukrainian Constitution on issues connected with performing foreign policy activities, ensuring national security of Ukraine, and maintaining its defense capability at the proper level; to submit the State Program for Cooperation with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Until 2001, approved by the Ukrainian presidential edict, to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for examination;
• ensure that international legal acts are sent to the Supreme Council for examination that are signed on Ukraine's behalf and lay down legal principles of Ukraine's cooperation with international organizations, and which are deemed legally binding by the Ukrainian Supreme Council;
• instruct the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers to hasten the work on draft laws on principles of Ukrainian national security; the general structure and number of military formations and law enforcement bodies being created in compliance with Ukrainian law regarding which the Ukrainian Supreme Council has not yet adopted any laws; and admission and stationing conditions for Armed Forces units from other states, in order to submit those draft laws to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for examination.

5. The Ukrainian president is recommended to:

• continue active mediating peace efforts to stop the bombardments and other violent actions by NATO against the Union Republic of Yugoslavia;
• oppose any NATO actions regarding the conduct of ground operations and military occupation of the Union Republic of Yugoslavia;
• come up with an initiative to urgently hold an international UN-sponsored conference on a peaceful settlement in Yugoslavia and propose Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, as a venue for such a conference;
• submit a proposal to convene in Kiev a conference of heads of OSCE states to formulate a collective security model adequate for modern geopolitical conditions and to sign a relevant treaty.

6. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers should:

• ensure a broad and open coverage of foreign policy activities, in particular, keep the Ukrainian people's deputies and society regularly and comprehensively updated on the cooperation with European, Euro-Atlantic, and other international structures;
• undertake urgent measures to suspend the destruction of strategic aviation systems and missile silos and launchers;
• propose to hold in April 1999 a session by the Danube Commission to examine issues related to security and navigation in the Danube and compensation for losses inflicted on Ukraine and other states using the Danube transportation route by the embargo and the NATO military actions against Yugoslavia;
• instruct the Ukrainian Ministries of Finance, Economy, and Transportation and the Ukrainian Tax Administration to urgently determine the amount of losses incurred by Ukraine as a user of the Danube transportation route during the embargo's term and as a result of the NATO actions against Yugoslavia;
• by 1 May 1999, submit to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for examination proposals on temporary--until the Danube navigation is fully restored--exemption of Danube shipping enterprises from taxes and levies (mandatory payments) payable to budgets and state target funds;
• bring the attention of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry to the inadmissibility of the violation of the Ukrainian Constitution during military exercises with the participation of Army units from other states and to the need of strict compliance with provisions set forth in Article 85, Section 23, of the Ukrainian Constitution, on mandatory approval by the Ukrainian Supreme Council of decisions to allow units of foreign Armed Forces into Ukrainian territory.

7. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers is recommended to:

• in the process of executing the Ukrainian Law "On the Ukrainian State Budget for 1999" and drafting the Ukrainian national budget for 2000, find additional funds to finance urgent needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Border Troops because the present financial and material level of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Border Troops, and other military formations assigned to guarantee Ukrainian national security does not meet even their minimal needs, which puts the national security and defense capability of our country in danger;
• draft a state program for developing the Ukrainian defense industry and submit it to the Ukrainian Supreme Council for examination by August 1999.

8. Hold parliamentary hearings in June 1999 on reforms of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The Supreme Council for National Security and Defense, together with other Supreme Council committees, should ensure the preparation of necessary documents and resolution of organizational issues connected with holding the above parliamentary hearings.

Ukrainian Supreme Council Chairman Oleksandr Tkachenko,
Kiev, 23 April 1999. No. 612-XIV.