UKRAINIAN-ROMANIAN TREATY NEGOTIATIONS STAND BETTER CHANCE.

On the eve of a potentially decisive round of talks with Romania on a good-neighborly relations treaty, Ukrainian foreign minister Hennady Udovenko yesterday urged Bucharest to agree to clauses that would "unambiguously and unreservedly recognize the inviolability of existing borders on land and at sea, and stipulate renunciation of territorial claims now and in the future." (Interfax-Ukraine, February 24)

Stalled since 1992 over oblique Romanian claims to areas currently in Ukraine, the negotiations have a better chance of success now that the new pro-Western government in Bucharest seeks to qualify for admission to the European Union and NATO. Those organizations require Romania to sign a good-neighborly relations treaty with Ukraine. Kiev has welcomed Western insistence on that point.

Baturin Anticipates Troop Cut in Moldova.