Budapest memorandum: 25 years since nuclear weapons relinquishing
22.02.2020
Dedicated to “Budapest memorandum: 25 years since nuclear weapons relinquishing” panel discussion, an independently organized event scheduled to take place in Vienna on 20th of February 2020.
Background and basic facts
Twenty five years ago Ukraine gave up security, guaranteed by nuclear weapons, in that time the third largest arsenal in the world, in exchange for security guaranteed by the Budapest Memorandum.
Ukraine joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty as a non-nuclear state exclusively under conditions which granted security assurances to Ukraine by five nuclear states, the five UN Security Council permanent members. This condition was implemented in the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances to Ukraine signed on the 5th of December 1994 on the sidelines of the OSCE\CSCE Summit by the Great Britain, the USA and the Russian Federation. France and China supported the Memorandum by signing separate declarations.
Security guarantees provided by the P5 nuclear states to Ukraine, including full respect for its sovereignty and territorial integrity, were critical in convincing Ukraine to relinquish its nuclear arsenal.
According to Budapest Memorandum Russia pledged to be one of the guarantors of national sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
In 2014 Russia showed utter contempt and disregard for the Budapest Memorandum by occupying Crimea and invading Eastern Ukraine.
The brutal violation of the international obligations by the state which pledged to be the guarantor of their implementation undermines the whole UN based security system created after the World War II.
Failure to enforce the security guarantees granted to Ukraine also undermines credibility of international agreements to ensure security, territorial integrity and inviolability of their borders.
Security assurances to Ukraine were reaffirmed by the US and the RF in a joint statement on December 4, 2009. Subsequently, these assurances were also supported by the UK and China, underlining a significant contribution of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan into strengthening global security. This enhanced the NPT regime, had a beneficial impact on international security and strategic stability, and created favorable conditions for further steps to reduce nuclear arsenals.
Fundamental principles envisaged in the Budapest Memorandum and their flagrant violations
The Budapest Memorandum constitutes a significant building block for global security arrangements, the European security architecture and a cornerstone of stability in a volatile post-Soviet region. Its de-facto deactivation as a result of the brutal military aggression by the guarantor-state has undermined all layers of global security.
Russia’s ongoing aggression has undercut every pillar of the international rule-based order: the UN Charter, the Paris Charter for New Europe, Final Act of the Helsinki Conference, the European convention on human rights, other OSCE basic principles and commitments, multiple bilateral treaties and agreements.
Russia treats international law and reads international treaties in a very specific manner, very selectively, as a “restaurant menu”. Same as the Minsk Agreement, the Budapest Memorandum was read very selectively by the Kremlin.
The Russian Federation has not yet officially threatened Ukraine with use of nuclear weapons. Although placing such weapons in the occupied Crimea poses a serious threat to the mainland of Ukraine, international peace and security in the wide Black Sea region as well as the World.
Kremlin has been consistently violating all other clauses of the Memorandum. It continues to violate Clause 1 of the Budapest Memorandum, under which it committed to respect the independence, sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine.
Russia violates Clause 2 of the Memorandum, under which it reaffirmed that none of its weapons would ever be used against Ukraine.
Moscow consistently breaks Clause 3 of the Budapest Memorandum, carrying out economic coercion "designed to subordinate to its own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty”.
The Budapest Memorandum was flagrantly breached and its full-fledged functioning must be urgently restored to address issues of stopping the aggression against Ukraine and to repair damage inflicted on the European security and the NPT regime.
The persistence of the Budapest Memorandum is even more vital in an era of heightening threats of nuclear proliferation and efforts to quell security concerns of states seeking a nuclear deterrent (Iran, North Korea). Neglect to established security assurances related to relinquishing nuclear weapons ambitions undermines global endeavors to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and to secure progress in guarantying Global peace and security/
Outcome and some conclusions
Organizing a panel discussion in Vienna provides a unique opportunity to discuss the provisions of the Budapest Memorandum against a background of different perceptions on its importance, validity and effectiveness.
The Budapest Memorandum is a unique security arrangement - an unprecedented success story of nuclear non-proliferation and one of the rare cases where the decades-long discussions of building a nuclear-free world materialized. It implements a two-fold strategy – to ensure security in the Central and Eastern Europe, preempting possible tensions in the Post-Soviet area, and promoting, on that basis, nuclear disarmament in the very practical way.
The complex set of problems of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, as well as the obvious failure of, seemingly reliable, international guarantees of the territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Ukraine in exchange for voluntary denial of nuclear weapons is a serious destabilizing factor of erosion, if not destruction, of international legal systems for the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The main factor that triggers such tendencies is the formation of a firm distrust of the «international guarantees», which, in the face of aggression and flagrant violation as well as neglect of international norms and principles, show inefficiency, impuissance and helplessness.
To demand today, from the world, additional legally binding guarantees of security, territorial integrity and inviolability of the borders of Ukraine, as suggested by some Ukrainian politicians, is not relevant, since, this does not need to be done. Ukraine only needs to demand from its partners the honest and effective implementation of the agreements already reached and the implementation of assurances guaranteed for Ukraine in the Budapest Memorandum. First of all, it is necessary to take more active and determined measures of economic and political pressure on Russia on the part of Western guarantors.
The Budapest Memorandum is not a document «legally void» of anything significant, from the point of view of the nuclear liabilities to Ukraine. From the point of view of international law, this is a fundamentally incorrect thesis. The Memorandum is a full-fledged international treaty, the obligations of which Ukraine has fully and timely implemented. Russia's reluctance to recognize the obvious facts of its aggression against Ukraine lead to that demagogic rhetoric around this international legal document, which has been voiced by the Russian side, during the past years.
It is believed that despite the importance of international legal mechanisms for ensuring security, the most effective way to address the pressing security problems Ukraine has been facing, is to continue to build up its own defense and security capabilities as well as to actively integrate into the Euro-Atlantic collective security system of democratic nations, whose effectiveness and reliability have been tested by time.
The panel discussion is intended for the OSCE senior diplomats and military advisers, officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Defense or Interior of Austria as a host country, representatives from the security sector, national Parliaments as well as from academia and civil society .
Author: Mr. Ihor Lossovskyi, Deputy Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the OSCE