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Monday April 28, 1997

BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION CONFERENCE STARTS Officials and corporate leaders from throughout the Black Sea region began converging on Istanbul yesterday for a Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) conference, international agencies reported. Leaders from Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Georgia, and Romania are arriving today. More than 400 businessmen and representatives from 35 countries are participating. The discussions will end on 30 April with a meeting of the foreign ministers of the BSEC member countries.

CHORNOBYL DISASTER REMEMBERED. Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia on 26 April marked the 11th anniversary of the Chornobyl disaster with official ceremonies that drew thousands of mourners. In Ukraine, ceremonies remembering those who died in the explosion and its aftermath were held at the Chornobyl site and in Kyiv, Ukrainian media reported. In Minsk, more than 20,000 people took part in a march to mark the anniversary and to protest President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's efforts to form a closer union between Belarus and Russia. An official commemoration ceremony in Minsk reportedly drew only 500 people. Russian President Boris Yeltsin praised the courage of those who battled to contain the Chornobyl nuclear disaster but said more needed to be done to help its victims, Reuters reported.

G-7 FINANCE MINISTERS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT UKRAINE. The finance ministers and central bank governors of the G-7 group of major industrial nations say they are "increasingly concerned" that Ukraine has been unable to implement economic reforms, RFE/RL's Washington correspondent reported. The ministers, who met in the U.S. capital yesterday for their quarterly session, urged Kyiv to "engage fully and quickly to implement" the program agreed with the IMF late last year. Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksander Kuzmuk and several senior military officers arrived in the U.S. yesterday to meet U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen, State Department officials, and U.S. Congress leaders. An embassy spokesman told RFE/RL that discussions between Kuzmuk and Cohen will focus primarily on Ukraine's involvement in NATO's Partnership for Peace program.

KUCHMA SAYS CRIMEA WILL REMAIN PART OF UKRAINE. Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma says that Ukraine's ownership of the peninsula and the port city of Sevastopol is not open to debate. He was speaking to journalists during his trip to Crimea on 25 April. His comments were aimed at Russia's upper house of the parliament, which recently urged President Boris Yeltsin to raise the issue of Crimea's status with Kuchma when he visits Kyiv in June. Kuchma stressed that he and Yeltsin have already agreed that the Russian portion of the divided Black Sea fleet will continue to be based in Sevastopol and that the port will remain Ukrainian territory

Tuesday April 29, 1997

LUZHKOV ACCUSES OPPONENTS OF PLOTTING AGAINST UNION WITH BELARUS. Moscow Mayor Yurii Luzhkov says First Deputy Prime Minister Anatolii Chubais, Security Council Deputy Secretary Boris Berezovskii, and Russia's Democratic Choice leader Yegor Gaidar are plotting to scuttle a Russian- Belarusian union, Interfax reported yesterday. Luzhkov argued that the majority of citizens are in favor of the union but that opponents are waging an anti-Belarusian media campaign and seeking a nationwide referendum on unification as a stalling tactic. Berezovskii dismissed Luzhkov's comments as "populism." Although Luzhkov has repeatedly denied having presidential ambitions, he is considered among the likely candidates to succeed Yeltsin. In recent months, he has made many pronouncements likely to appeal to nationalist voters, in particular claiming that the Ukrainian port city of Sevastopol is Russian territory.

ROMANIA REACHES COMPROMISE WITH UKRAINE OVER BASIC TREATY. Severin also told reporters in Brussels that his country has reached "a compromise treaty" with Ukraine and that the accord will be initialed during his scheduled visit to Kyiv on 3 May, AFP reported. Severin said the document will protect Romania's "strategic interests" and contains "important provisions on the national minorities," but he gave no details. President Emil Constantinescu and his Ukrainian counterpart, Leonid Kuchma, discussed the treaty in Istanbul, where they are attending a three-day Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) conference, Reuters reported. Following the meeting, Constantinescu confirmed that the treaty will be finalized at the beginning of next month.

ROMANIA, MOLDOVA, UKRAINE TO ESTABLISH "EURO-REGIONS." President Constantinescu says he has agreed with his Ukrainian and Molodovan counterparts, Leonid Kuchma and Petru Lucinschi, to set up two "Euro-Regions" in areas where their three borders converge. Constantinescu told Radio Bucharest that the agreement was reached yesterday in Istanbul within the framework of the BSEC conference. He added that he originally proposed the idea to Lucinschi, who discussed it with Kuchma. The construction of new road links in the "Euro-Regions" will allow for intensified economic cooperation and cultural contacts. The regions will be mentioned in the pending bilateral treaty with Ukraine.

Wednesday April 30, 1997

ESTONIA APPROVES SOCIAL SECURITY AGREEMENT WITH UKRAINE. The Estonian government yesterday approved a bill on the ratification of a social security agreement with Ukraine. The agreement, which covers pensions, medical services, child welfare, and compensation for accidents, has to be endorsed by both countries' parliaments before it goes into force. Foreign Minister Toomas Hendrik Ilves told a news conference in Tallinn yesterday that the agreement is a further step toward closer bilateral relations.


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