Yushchenko advocates NATO as balance

EXCLUSIVE:

KIEV | Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko blamed the Russia-Georgia war on a security imbalance in the Black Sea region that he said could be corrected by NATO’s further expansion to the East.

But he downplayed fears that his country is vulnerable to military aggression by Moscow even if it does not gain admission to the Western alliance.

“I don’t believe that kind of danger exists for Ukraine, because Ukraine is not Georgia,” Mr. Yushchenko told The Washington Times Wednesday. “Ukraine has a different potential, different possibilities. In other words, our relations [with Russia] can only bring about a dialogue.”

Asked about recent remarks by Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin that NATO membership for Georgia would require a military response from the Western alliance, Mr. Yushchenko spoke in broader terms of the need for collective security throughout the region.

“This showed that the Black Sea region is unbalanced and that it can be a source of danger,” Mr. Yushchenko said. “This is a problem not only for Georgia. I am convinced this is a problem not only for our region. This is a problem for the European continent and, in a wider sense, even a world problem.”

Looking composed and relaxed, the silver-haired Mr. Yushchenko, 54, has regained the youthful vigor for which he was famous before dioxin poisoning left his face badly scarred in a purported 2004 assassination attempt.

He answered questions for nearly an hour, touching on a wide range of issues, including his nation’s quest for membership in NATO and the European Union and his desire for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to eventually leave its base in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol.

He also expressed disappointment at the rivalry with a one-time political ally, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, that led to the collapse of a parliamentary coalition this week.

Ukraine’s relationship with Russia sparked the dispute, with Mrs. Tymoshenko accusing Mr. Yushchenko of unnecessarily antagonizing Moscow after last month’s invasion of Georgia.

The two are expected to run against each other for the presidency when Mr. Yushchenko’s five-year term ends in January 2010.

Mr. Yushchenko will travel to the United States next week to attend the 63rd session of the U.N. General Assembly, where he will have an opportunity to discuss with dozens of world leaders the war in Georgia and its impact on the centerpiece of his four-year presidency: Ukraine’s quest for NATO membership.

“When we talk about the best answer for Ukraine, including its territorial integrity, and the inviolability of our borders, the answer is only one - joining a collective system of defense,” he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has stated repeatedly that former Soviet republics lie in his country’s sphere of interest.

“I’m not going to say, however, that there aren’t going to be ways for destabilization. In this country, there are instruments, and there are many of them,” Mr. Yushchenko said of Russia.

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