REACTIONS TO YELTSIN’S "NEW BLOC" WARNING.

Publication: Monitor Volume: 1 Issue: 93

Several newly independent states have taken issue with President Boris Yeltsin’s September 8 warning that Russia might respond to NATO’s enlargement by assembling a "new [military] bloc" comprised of the former Soviet republics. Ukrainian foreign minister Hennady Udovenko expressed concern lest Ukraine become a buffer state between an enlarged NATO and Russia. He reasserted Ukraine’s decision to stay out of any military alliance, but also confirmed Ukraine’s decision to cooperate with NATO’s Partnership for Peace program and to submit in Brussels September 14 Ukraine’s individual cooperation program under the 16+1 formula. Moldova’s foreign minister, Mihai Popov, pointed to the country’s constitutionally-sanctioned permanent neutrality and ban on the stationing of foreign troops, and reaffirmed that Moldova would join neither the CIS collective security system nor NATO, but would cooperate with the latter’s Partnership for Peace program. Like his Ukrainian colleague, Popov worried over his country becoming caught in a "confrontation" between an enlarged NATO and Russia. Turkmenistan’s foreign minister Boris Shikhmuradov said that his country seeks international recognition of its neutrality and that it will not join any bloc but will aim for creating a strong army, "with Ukrainian assistance."

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