Kravchuk Heads to U.S. With Pledge of Reform

KIEV, Ukraine -- President Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine said Tuesday that he planned to deliver a clear message pledging his country to economic reform when he makes a long-anticipated visit to the United States on Thursday.


In meetings with President Bill Clinton and other leading American politicians, Kravchuk said he would sell them the idea of a market-orientated Ukraine, in dramatic contrast to the current reality.


"We should aim to see the revival of Ukraine on a free market basis. There will be economic reform, I am confident of this," he told a group of reporters in the Ukrainian capital.


Kravchuk's visit to Washington amounts to a "thank you" present to the Ukrainian leader for his help in bringing his country's parliament to ratify key arms treaties, including the START-I nuclear disarmament treaty.


His comments pledging future reforms will come as welcome relief to U.S. officials. For two years Kiev has continued to live largely under a flawed command economy system, despite fruitless attempts by Western officials to encourage reform.


Earlier requests for an official visit to Washington had been refused over the disarmament issue, but Thursday's meeting between Kravchuk and Clinton nevertheless will comes at a sensitive time.


Ukraine is looking for cash -- lots of it. The country's standard of living has dropped remorselessly since independence over two years ago and hyperinflation has taken hold.


Kravchuk said Kiev was hoping to complete deals with the IMF and the World Bank that would open the way for a $1.5 billion loan.


He said Ukraine had received $30 million to help with privatization and other reform programs but added, "we require billions of dollars in private capital. We need large-scale cooperation."U.S. help for Ukraine is also important on a diplomatic level. The country is under pressure from a growing Russian nationalist movement in Crimea, which threatens to bring the country into direct conflict with Russia.


For the United States, learning to deal with Ukraine has become a key part of their strategy to promote stability in the former Soviet republics. From hoping that the Ukrainian problem would simply go away in 1991, the United States last year reassessed its relations with Kiev.


Now, the hope among administration officials is that an economically resurgent Ukraine could play a stabilizing role in the region at a time when the future of Russia's political leadership and its economic reforms are uncertain.


It is this role of regional U.S. ally, void of cold war jealousies, which Kravchuk is hoping to play on.


"Everyone should understand that Russia will not be content with playing a secondary role in the world," Kravchuk said yesterday. "Russia cannot deny a thousand years of history."


Ukraine, said Kravchuk, hoped to become a conduit for Western finance in the region, helping to establish markets and cement the democracies in Eastern and Central Europe.


"The world community should recognize the role that Ukraine can play in stabilizing the region," he said."For our part, we will do everything possible to help these civilized aims."


However, Kravchuk is aware that if Ukraine is to receive international aid and private funds while drawing respect from the United States and G-7 countries, then the issue of nuclear weapons will have to be solved.


Although Kravchuk said that great strides had been made already, Ukraine still has not signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which will pledge the country to become a military non-nuclear power.


There is also the outstanding problem of U.S. and Russian security guarantees for Ukraine. Negotiators in Kiev said that the talks had stalled over issues of both detail and substance between the U.S., Russian and Ukrainian positions.


An agreement on the guarantees was to have been a key point in the meeting between Clinton and Kravchuk meeting. It is very unlikely, as Kravchuk conceded Tuesday, that this will now happen.