Ukraine's borders 'non-negotiable,' EU says

PHILIPPA RUNNER

10.09.2008 @ 09:39 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU leaders underlined their support for Ukraine's territorial integrity at the EU-Ukraine summit in Paris on Tuesday (9 September), as the Russian-backed partitioning of Georgia continues to raise fears of instability further afield.

"In the eyes of Europe, [the status of Ukraine] is absolutely non-negotiable," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said at the Paris meeting, which he attended after flying in from Russia. "In the discussions that we held yesterday in Moscow, there was nothing that would allow me to think that this was a problem."

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The phrase "respect for the principle of territorial integrity" was used three times in the joint political declaration signed at the summit, with the brief text devoting a whole page to the EU and Ukraine's common policy on Georgia.

The meeting also saw the EU promise to sign an "Association Agreement" with Ukraine in mid-2009, open "long-term" talks on a visa-free dialogue and rhetorically paint Ukraine as standing closer to the EU bloc than the old post-Soviet sphere.

"We say solemnly that Ukraine is a European country that shares a common history and values with European Union countries," Mr Sarkozy said.

In the light of Russia's newly assertive foreign policy, Ukraine diplomats had hoped for a clear statement that Ukraine has an EU enlargement "perspective," with the title of the "Association Agreement" itself offering no promise of future accession.

But despite the disappointment, Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko gave the deal a strong pro-enlargement spin.

"When we look at the enlargement of the EU, just looking back in the 1990's, there were 15 association agreements with countries that pursued the process and ultimately became members of the EU," he said.

"So this is why I am saying that today we are starting a very ambitious plan that should ultimately lead us to victory."

Georgia ripples

Events in Georgia - where the Russian army invaded to protect Russian passport holders - have stirred fears in Ukraine, where 25 percent of people are ethnic Russians, rising to 60 percent on the Crimea peninsula.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in April warned that Ukraine's drive to join NATO would lead to a "disintegration" of the country, while Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last month pledged to increase Russia's influence in "regions of privileged interest."

Moscow on Tuesday said it plans to keep 7,600 soldiers indefinitely in Georgia's breakaway Abkhazia and South Ossetia regions, which it has recognised as independent states, citing the EU and US' backing for Kosovo as precedent.

But Nicaragua remains the only other country to also reognise the two Georgian territories, while China - which faces its own separatist problems in Xinjiang, Tibet and Taiwan - has voiced "concern" over the Russian move.

Analysts say the recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia could embolden separatists inside Russia, which crushed uprisings in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999, but faces increasing violence and governance problems in Ingushetia and Dagestan and renewed talk of independence in Tatarstan and Bashkortostan.

"We do have some separatist movements, some extremist elements, especially in the northern Caucasus, but they are very minor," Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, Dmitri Peskov, told the International Herald Tribune.