Kyiv: On Tuesday, October 2, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree “On one-year national programs under the auspices of the Ukraine-NATO Commission”, and yesterday communicated by telephone with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and directly with former French leader Francois Hollande.
FNI is completing a series of topical interviews with international experts on the nuances of interpersonal communication of the Head of our state with their foreign counterparts, to find out how similar diplomacy can bring closer the prospects for resolving the situation in the Donbas and returning home the captives of the Kremlin.
The first to comment on this topic was political analyst Oleр Sahakyan, and Olesya Yakhno, and today Taras Chernovil decided to share his thoughts, on who of the four deputy cadenzas, worked in the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada in international affairs.
FRONT NEWS : Taras Vyacheslavovich, in the context of the upcoming visit of Angela Merkel to Ukraine, she will be with us for the first time? I don’t remember that the German Chancellor came to us earlier …
TARAS CHERNOVIL: There was really no planned visit, but the emergency one was in February 2015, when the first Minsk process was somewhat slowed down. Russia was ready for a new offensive in the Donbas and then on the way to Moscow, Angela Merkel and Francois Hollande visited Kyiv for half a day.
Therefore, yesterday’s presentation of the Order of Freedom to Hollande by Petro Poroshenko is a testimony of Ukraine’s gratitude to the position of our Western partners.
At the same time, both European leaders, not without reason, felt that Putin could completely “go to the roof,” and he would begin external adventures not only here, but west of Ukraine. Both Merkel and Hollande had long evening talks with Poroshenko and then flew to Moscow. Then, I remember from the TV picture, how the French president’s hands were shaking and he admitted to journalists that the world was on the threshold of the Third World War.
Merkel herself was scheduled to visit Canada, but she put it off and urgently flew to the United States, to Obama. I don’t know what they agreed on there, but the next day, the space defense shield of the missile defense disappeared in Russia, bearing in mind that the satellite constellation, warning of a nuclear attack, had ceased to function.
FNI: Back to yesterday’s telephone conversation between Poroshenko and Merkel. How often do they communicate with each other?
T.Ch.: I am convinced that conversations continue quite often, and when such contacts and the method of their protection are regulated by any pranker it is difficult to imitate our president’s permanent telephone counterparts.
At the first stage, when human contacts between leaders are only being established, one can only guess: who was there who first sent the letter to anyone, called him on the phone, Trump, Kim, or vice versa. And when communication is carried out constantly, as in this case, then it does not matter who the initiative of this or that call belonged to.
FNI: Is it always reported about the facts of the conversation held in the press?
T.Ch.: In international practice, the leaders tentatively agree on the degree of closed conversations and the further format of its publication. Now, I think, the overwhelming majority of the conversations of the press service provide information on the sites, but this was not always the case. For example, in the hot periods of tension, before the signing of Minsk-2, it was important to agree on certain things beforehand without Putin’s knowledge. Therefore, it was only possible to learn about this after the fact, from the subsequent references of the participants to the fact of such a conversation.
FNI: In your opinion, a visit to Kiev personally for Merkel, how important will it be for a German politician or will this be just a tribute to diplomatic courtesy?
T.Ch.: “We should not forget that Merkel is not only a German politician, but also a common European politician, and is also engaged in a serious global game. For example, now that Serbia and Kosovo have started talking about a possible exchange of disputed territories, or rather those where a particular national minority lives compactly, she called both leaders several times, because Germany is interested in preserving peace, and changing borders even by mutual agreement of the parties may become a detonator of uncontrolled processes.
In this Balkan case, we have a classic example of one-way communication. In the case of Ukraine, it already feels that two-way communication has been established. Probably, Poroshenko often called these calls to Berlin for four years, since every Kremlin’s anti-Ukrainian attack would have to have confidence in the actions of the allies. In humanitarian matters, as in the case of Sentsov and Sushchenko, elementary mediation is sometimes needed.
In addition, it is worth recalling that there are still old agreements on informing the Ukrainian side when Germany somehow discusses its cooperation with third countries, but in the course of the realization of foreign interests, the interests of our country may be affected.
Or take the recent visit to the United States of the Ukrainian delegation to the UN General Assembly. Poroshenko had a brief conversation with Trump, and if in the course of it he somehow considered the issue of normalization in the Donbas, I am convinced that the American side was not opposed to Berlin being informed about the position of Washington on this issue.
According to the latest information about the conversation with Merkel, a joint communique for the press was apparently adopted, with a list of topics covered in the conversation. Incidentally, there was an item on the discussion of energy cooperation issues. Obviously, Poroshenko did not miss the opportunity to once again remind of the “Nord Stream 2”.
Alexander Voronin, FNI
