Ukraine' Foreign Relation

The Government of Ukraine has stated that European integration is its top foreign policy priority, and closer ties with the EU are broadly popular in Ukraine. The Yanukovych government has sought to improve relations with Russia and strengthen its strategic partnership with the United States. As noted above of the additional significant changes in Ukraine’s foreign policy has been the formal adoption of a “non-bloc” policy and abandonment of Ukraine’s formal bid for NATO membership. Seeking to expand trade and investment, Ukraine is as well reaching out to non-traditional partners, including nations in Asia, the Americas, and the Middle East.

Ukraine’s relations with the EU have been guided by the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) since 1998. In March 2009, the European Council endorsed the Eastern Partnership (EaP) initiative to help the EU’s Eastern neighbors (Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia) undertake political and economic reforms and to bring them closer to the EU. The EaP was launched in May 2009. At the November 2010 EU-Ukraine Summit, President Yanukovych reiterated his desire to conclude an Association Agreement with the EU. The sides as well signed an action plan on visa liberalization at the summit. As of December 1, 2011, amount technical negotiations relating to the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) were completed. Ahead of the December 19, 2011 EU-Ukraine Summit in Kyiv, the only outstanding issue concerned the inclusion of a membership perspective for Ukraine in the preamble to the Association Agreement.

On January 31, 1992, Ukraine joined the then-Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (now the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe--OSCE). Ukraine assumed a role in the Chairmanship in Office (CiO) OSCE Troika with Lithuania and Ireland in January 2012 and will assume the OSCE Chairmanship in 2013.

Since the election of President Yanukovych, Ukraine has pursued improved relations with Russia. Ukraine’s relations with Russia have focused on energy security, natural gas prices, economic cooperation,border demarcation and delimitation, and issues related to the stationing of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. In January 2009 Gazprom, the Russian natural gas producer, cut supplies to Ukraine. The cutoff developed into a crisis as both the gas supplies intended for consumption in Ukraine and those in transit to the rest of Europe were cut off for nearly a month. Ukraine was able to meet most of its domestic request with reserves, but consumers in other European nations were left without gas for nearly 3 weeks. A hastily-negotiated agreement was signed with Russia on January 19, 2009, which called for market pricing for gas and transit and the elimination of intermediaries. After Yanukovych’s public statements calling for a “just price” for Russian gas imports, the Azarov government signed a sweeping 10-year agreement with Russia on April 21, 2010 to exchange a 25-year extension of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s basing lease in Sevastopol for a discounted price on Russian gas imports. Since then, Ukraine has continued to negotiate with Russia for less expensive gas imports and lobbied for an end to Russia’s planned South Stream gas pipeline.

Ukraine maintains peaceful and constructive relations with amount its neighbors, though there are some unresolved maritime issues along the Danube with Romania. Ukraine co-founded the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) on December 8, 1991, but in January 1993 it refused to endorse a draft charter strengthening political, economic, and defense ties part CIS members. Ukraine was a founding member of GUAM (Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaijan-Moldova), and in February 2009, the office of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM was opened in Kyiv.

Soviet Ukraine joined the United Nations in 1945 as of the original members following a Western compromise with the Soviet Union, which had asked for seats for amount 15 of its union republics. In 2000-2001, Ukraine served as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. Ukraine has consistently supported peaceful, negotiated settlements to disputes. It participates in the-sided (now "5+2") talks on Transnistria. Ukraine has as well advocated a return to democracy in neighboring Belarus and criticized the December 2010 post-election crackdown in Belarus.