UKRAINE SEEKS BROADER RELATIONS WITH NATO.

Ukraine aspires to a special relationship with NATO outside and beyond the framework of the Partnership for Peace program, senior Foreign Ministry official Ihor Kharchenko told a Kiev briefing yesterday. The relationship should reflect the fact that Ukraine "is an organic part of East Central Europe whose countries support NATO’s enlargement," Kharchenko said. Ukraine will not apply to join NATO "in the near term." It will, however, submit specific proposals for broader cooperation with NATO when its Secretary General Javier Solana visits Kiev next week. (Interfax-Ukraine, Itar-Tass, April 9)

The official’s remarks echo President Leonid Kuchma’s remarks (following the Russian Duma’s March 15 resolution invalidating the dissolution of the USSR) to the effect that Ukraine does not plan to apply for joining NATO "at this time." Such remarks reflect an attitudinal shift on the part of key Ukrainian officials, who increasingly appear to see a national security opportunity along with risks in NATO’s planned enlargement eastwards.

RUSSIAN TROOPS IN TAJIKISTAN RATTLING SABER.