Ukraine sends note to Russia on non-extension of friendship treaty

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said this at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"The Foreign Ministry has handed over a formal note to the Russian Federation about the non-extension of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership," Klimkin said.

According to him, this is a very important moment, as the note mentions in detail all the violations committed by Russia against Ukraine. "This also concerns Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, Russia's hybrid aggression against Ukraine, economic pressure, the violation of the rights of Ukrainian citizens. This treaty was fundamentally violated by Russia so it cannot be prolonged," the minister said.

At the same time, he said, Ukraine has always used this treaty and a reference to it in the process of formulating lawsuits against Russia in international courts. "This applies to the UN international court [the ICC], and we now have several revolutionary lawsuits against Russia. This is our lawsuit as part of international arbitration, as part of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is also a lawsuit of Ukrainian citizens in Strasbourg regarding their rights violations. Most importantly, the very reference to Russia's violation of this treaty helped us succeed in the process around the so-called 'Yanukovych debt case.' And now, this is again a revolutionary issue - Russia's armed aggression and hybrid aggression will be considered in the London court," Klimkin said.

He also stressed that the situation with this treaty should become a kind of lesson for Ukraine, since it does not provide for any procedure for resolving disputes between the parties. "Perhaps this is a lesson for all of us. If you read it carefully, it does not even provide for any dispute settlement procedure. If a country violates this treaty, there should normally be the logic on which authorities to address. Even this was not foreseen there," the minister said.

He noted that for many people, from the political and emotional point of view, it is very difficult to understand "for what purpose we have chosen a strategy not to terminate this treaty, but not to extend it." According to Klimkin, this is done so that the reference to the treaty continues to help Ukraine in the consideration of cases against Russia in international courts.

The minister said that Ukraine would continue to work consistently on reviewing the contractual framework with Russia. "Like the treaty on friendship, it must be radically revised, but we will do so in accordance with a clear strategy and will not allow Russia to manipulate the suspension of a number of important bilateral agreements and will not allow doing so that it would harm Ukrainian citizens," he said.

As Ukrinform reported, on September 17, President Petro Poroshenko enacted the decision of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council of September 6 to terminate the effect of the Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership between Ukraine and Russia.

The Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership was signed in Kyiv on May 31, 1997. Under the terms of the treaty, the parties undertook, in particular, to "respect the territorial integrity and sovereignty" of the two countries and "reaffirmed the inviolability of the existing borders between them."