Gas consortium partners grow in number
These statements were balm to the willing ears of the Ukrainian leadership. “Thus the prospects look good for us,” President Kuchma commented. He further stated that Ukraine supports the soonest possible creation of the gas transport consortium. “We are against any delays in the creation of the consortium. On the contrary, we want this project to see the light of day,” Pres. Kuchma said during his joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin following the talks the Friday before last at Kuchma’s Crimean Zoria [daybreak] retreat.
Pres. Kuchma stressed that the Ukrainian side is satisfied with the progress of talks on the creation of the gas consortium. Explaining the logic of this process, he specified that initially talks were held at a bilateral level between Ukraine and Russia, during which an agreement was reached on the concept of the consortium. Now the talks have moved to a trilateral level with the participation of the German party.
The Russian side, however, has not yet commented on the participation of either Germany or the EBRD in the consortium. Moreover, following optimistic statements by Russian Premier Mikhail Kasyanov, who believes that all principal decisions on the project to create the consortium will be made before this year is out, certain new conditions have arisen shrouded in the haze of diplomatic rhetoric. Thus, calling to speed up the decision-making process, Premier Kasyanov said that “the coordination of where each country stands on its trade and economic directions will also be of consequence and influence decisions on some aspects of the consortium.”
What is this supposed to mean? As is known, aside from the consortium an even more complex process is underway, specifically, work on the creation of a single economic space of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan. At the present stage Ukraine “sees no alternative” to the deepening of its relationship with Russia and the development of cooperation within the framework of the single CIS economic space, Pres. Kuchma stated in the Crimea.
His Russian counterpart was no less optimistic. “I believe that we will have achieved a certain level of cooperation [within the free economic space] by September. Simultaneously, we want to synchronize our efforts on WTO accession,” Pres. Putin said in Foros following his talks with Leonid Kuchma, stressing that “there are serious differences” among Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan on the issues of joining the WTO. The Ukrainian president was not silent on these differences either, but expressed hope that both countries on their way to the WTO will make mutually advantageous and weighed decisions. “A wrong decision could affect either side or force it to impose barriers,” Pres. Kuchma stressed.
Could he be talking about the barriers against the new participants of the international gas transport consortium that is used to pressure Ukraine? It is no accident that Jean Lemierre specified that the participation of the EBRD in the consortium is possible provided all of its founders agree to that. On the face of it, the EBRD president knows something about the existing disagreements on this issue.
In a recent statement, Viktor Kaliuzhny, Russian deputy foreign minister and the Russian president’s negotiator on Caspian status, offered his view of the situation. “Oil (and gas, for that matter — Author) is the sine qua non, the solution to many problems of the twenty-first century. When we are not talking about it, we are thinking about it. If we can solve the problems of the single fuel space within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Community — unfortunately, we failed to do so within the CIS framework — then the success of the integration process will be assured,” Mr. Kaliuzhny believes. At the same time, he recalled that the presidents of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine agreed on a new blueprint for interstate cooperation at the February 23 meeting when the parties decided to start practical work on the creation of a single economic space.
The Ukrainians believe, however, that the gas consortium that will include European countries (incidentally, just like the free trade zone within the framework of the free economic space) is in fact an element of practical work. Pres. Kuchma is confident that the trilateral consortium will be created, although “this issue is a complex one and is connected with our relationship with Russia as well as our liabilities.” Simultaneously, he thanked the German side for being a permanent party to the talks on the creation of the consortium, though, as is known, the only talks with German participation were held in Kyiv on April 23 at a rather low level.
