Ukraine terminates the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation with Russia

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko plans to notify Russia of the non-renewal of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the two countries by September 30.

Photo: putin.kremlin.ru

To this end, in the near future, the head of Ukraine intends to convene a meeting of the Council of National Security and Defense, writes “Voice of America".

Poroshenko explained that the agreement is not broken, because it is a complicated and lengthy procedure, but ceases to be effective due to non-renewal. He stressed that this decision does not require a vote in parliament.

“Today it is solely the competence of the president of Ukraine. But, of course, I would like to hold relevant consultations on this matter in order to take into account the position and opinion of the parliament and the level of preparation of the relevant decision of the National Security Council, ”Poroshenko said.

The current Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia (the so-called “Big Treaty”) was signed in Kiev on May 31 on 1997 by Russian Presidents Boris Yeltsin and Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and ratified on 1998 in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the State Duma of Russia.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency reminds that the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation was signed on May 31 of 1997 for a period of 10 years (with the subsequent automatic prolongation of the document, if the parties do not speak against).

Article 40 of the Treaty emphasizes that it “is concluded for a period of ten years. Its action will then be automatically extended for subsequent ten-year periods if none of the High Contracting Parties declares to the other High Contracting Party that they wish to terminate it by written notice at least six months before the end of the next ten-year period. ”

In January 2018, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots Konstantin Zatulin proposed to denounce the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Russia and Ukraine in the part where countries recognize each other’s territorial boundaries.

Big contract, as a "simulator" of relations

A political expert of the Ukrainian Club, Vitaly Litvinenko, believes that since the signing of the Big Treaty, the Russian side has never concealed its desire to challenge the ownership of the Crimea, and “revive the Russian empire”.

“Twenty years ago, in the Kremlin, they perceived the Big Treaty as a temporary weakness on their part. And the Ukrainian side, which prepared the agreement, represented by General of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Marchuk and President Kuchma, our elite, accepted it as a fetish, as well as the Budapest Memorandum - as guarantees of Russia's territorial integrity of Ukraine. We have fed on these false illusions of the last 27 years, until in fact it did not cease to operate in the 2014 year, when Russia seized the Crimea, having entered the occupation administration. It actually denounced the norms of the treaty on the territorial integrity of states, ”Litvinenko noted.

He believes that the Big Treaty is obsolete both in meaning and content, and does not meet its intended purpose.

“Do modern Great Britain and France, Poland and Germany have similar agreements between themselves? Not. There are economic, political, social, legal agreements. But the friendship agreement is a “simulator” of relationships. The name itself speaks of a complete misunderstanding of international politics, and it is not in the interests of either Ukraine or Russia, ”the expert emphasized.

He is confident that in the termination of the contract there are positive moments for Kiev and for Moscow.

“With time, new elites will build new pragmatic relations, tougher, there will be no talk of any kind of friendship - we must talk about compensation, borders,“ beacons ”should be established. And sooner or later, Ukraine and Russia will return to this. But it will not be soon, ”Litvinenko expressed his opinion.

Big Treaty through the prism of international relations and economics

Political analyst, expert of the Political Consulting Agency “Media Factory”, Aleksei Kurpas, believes that Kiev made an absolutely correct decision to suspend the contract, and the state should not fear that the suspension of the Big Treaty could cause any losses at the international level.

“There is a wonderful phrase attributed to German Chancellor Bismarck that “a treaty with Russia is worth less than the paper on which it is written.” For a warlike and aggressive Russia, which is growing at the expense of the external territories of its neighbors, contractual relations are worth nothing. She can easily break them. Therefore, it is difficult to say that we may have bigger problems than those that already exist,” Kurpas emphasized.

However, Russia is still important for Ukraine economically. The expert noted that, despite the political rhetoric of official Kiev regarding international relations with Russia, Russian investments remain one of the most significant in the Ukrainian economy in 2018.

“This year, even when we are trying to push off from Moscow as much as possible, the percentage of Russian investments is about forty percent. Cyprus is in second place, but given the structure of its tax policy, it can be said that there is a significant proportion of Russian and Ukrainian funds in Cypriot investments, ”said Kurpas.

According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, during January-June, 1,259 billion dollars of investments were received in Ukraine. Of this amount, $436 million came from investors from Russia, which is 34,6% of the total. In second place in terms of investments in Ukraine is Cyprus, which invested $219 million, and third is the Netherlands with $207,7 million of investments.

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