Political expert: Ukraine’s security agreement with the US is not legally binding
14 June 2024 17:43
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The bilateral security agreement between Ukraine and the United States differs from all previous documents signed by Ukraine with its partner states, but it is not yet legally binding. This was stated by political analyst Ihor Reiterovych in a commentary for "Komersant Ukrainian".
As a reminder, on 13 June, US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bilateral agreement on security guarantees for 10 years on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) summit.
Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva said that the security agreement between Ukraine and the United States differs from all previous documents signed by Ukraine with partner states, as it will be legally binding.
Reiterowicz explained that the security agreement between Ukraine and the United States is not yet legally binding, as it has not been ratified by Congress.
“The position of the Office of the President of Ukraine, as far as I understand it, is that it will first be registered with the UN, and this will bring it to a slightly different level. It will be an international document, and then there is hope that it can be submitted to Congress. But when this can be done is an open question,”
– he said.
According to him, it is unlikely that the US Congress will vote for this agreement before the elections.
“I have some doubts that this will happen before the elections. It is a rather controversial issue. The Republicans may not take the position that the Biden administration hopes for, not because they don’t like the deal, but because they don’t want to give Biden additional bargaining chips in terms of their domestic campaign,”
– reuters added.
The political analyst noted that so far the key difference from previous agreements is that it is more detailed, bilateral, specifically tied to Ukraine and the United States, and that it will be registered with the UN.
“But we’ll see if it will be the first agreement to be voted on in Congress. Because, according to this logic, the Verkhovna Rada should then vote for it. So far, we have not seen or heard any such decisions in the Verkhovna Rada – most likely, it was just a statement that there is a prospect of this agreement being ratified, but I don’t know how realistic it is,” he said,
– he said.
Reiterowicz also added that there is nothing complicated about Ukraine’s quarterly reporting, as it is something that Ukraine does regularly, for example, at the NATO level.
“The agreement is not only about military-technical cooperation, there are separate blocks that relate, for example, to helping Ukraine with institutional reforms, so I think it is related to that. It also includes accountability for the assistance provided by the United States. Plus, there is a separate block related to NATO standards and so on – there is nothing complicated here for the US – Ukraine does this regularly, for example, at the NATO level, and they simply get an additional opportunity to somehow receive reports from Ukraine on what has been done and how it has been done and implemented. There is nothing complicated here – Ukraine does this regularly, for example, at the NATO level, so it is not a problem for the US to do it separately. The main thing is to have something to report on,”
– the political scientist summarised.
Author – Iryna Shevchenko
