President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko declares that Ukraine is legally ready to terminate the treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership with Russia, concluded in 1997, and expects the relevant documents from the Foreign Ministry.
“Today we have approached sufficiently prepared and legally protected to the next step: the termination of the treaty on friendship, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, which through Moscow’s fault has long become an anachronism,” Poroshenko said at a meeting with heads of foreign diplomatic institutions of Ukraine in Kyiv on August 28.
“Already in the near future, I expect the necessary documents from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin the implementation of this process,” the president said.
Ukraine and Russia signed the treaty on May 31, 1997. It stipulated that its initial 10 years of validity could be automatically extended with the parties’ mutual consent. The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada ratified the treaty on January 14, 1998, and the Russian State Duma on December 25, 1998. It took effect on April 1, 1999, when the parties exchanged ratification instruments.
The treaty codified the principle of strategic partnership, the recognition of the inviolability of existing borders, respect for territorial integrity, and reciprocal obligation not to use their territories to the detriment of each other’s security.
As the parties did not express a desire to terminate the treaty before October 1, 2008, it was automatically extended for another 10-year period.
