The Beijing talks between Presidents Kuchma of Ukraine and Jiang Zemin of the Chinese People’s Republic resulted in the signing of four documents, reports Interfax-Ukraine. The heads of state have signed a joint declaration, an agreement between the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine and the Chinese government on cooperation in the sphere of the protection of intellectual property, a protocol between the Ministry for Industrial Policy and the Chinese Committee on Defense Science, Engineering, and Defense Industry in the sphere of aircraft building, and exchanged letters on aid to the government of Ukraine by that of China.
China’s new Communist Party leadership will make every reasonable effort to further develop the relationship with Ukraine, said Chinese Defense Minister Chi Khaotang after his meeting with Pres. Kuchma. He stressed that he holds the Ukrainian president to be “a bosom friend of the Chinese people” and said that he is pleased at the fact that Leonid Kuchma was the first foreign leader to visit China in the wake of the Congress of the Communist Party of China, reports Interfax-Ukraine.
According to Olena Hromnytska, Ukrainian presidential press secretary, Minister of the Committee on Defense Science, Engineering, and Defense Industry of China, Liu Tsibing, underscored the considerable progress in cooperation between the two countries in the sphere of space technology, shipbuilding, and training of specialists, stressing that China takes special interest in cooperating with Ukraine in the aerospace sector, where Ukraine has great potential. Reports suggest that Beijing is willing to enlist the services of Ukrainian specialists to perform maintenance of An family aircraft (of which China has over 100) and to help upgrade them. In addition, before long Ukrainian and Chinese specialists are to start developing new equipment, specifically, a wing for a 70- seat short-distance plane. Ukrainian aircraft builders expect the An- 74 plane to soon be certified in Beijing. Moreover, according to Oleksandr Kiva, marketing and sales department chief at the Antonov design bureau, one of the projects currently under discussion deals with upgrading YUN-8 F600 planes, whose prototype is the An-12, and another with upgrading the YUN-5 plane, whose prototype is the An-2. The Antonov Design Bureau is also a partner in the RJ-21 project. China is also reviewing proposals of the Ukrainian side regarding the An-70 plane.
Simultaneously, Ukraine is not interested solely in China’s economic potential. It is common knowledge that China is a permanent member of the UN Security Council. For this reason, according to ITAR-TASS, the Ukrainians might request that China assist in having a group of UN inspectors look into the false nature of accusations of the alleged sale of early warning systems, the Kolchuha, to Iraq in violation of UN sanctions.
