Ukraine, Georgia - "Key Players" in Regional Security?

According to Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, Ukraine and Georgia claim to play the key role in the local security issues.

While addressing the international conference titled "Ukraine and Georgia in the process of forming a new international security system: problems and prospects", Kuchma said that the two countries must draw the attention of the world leaders and centres of influence to their key role in regional security.

According to the Ukrainian president, the real international significance of such countries as Georgia and Ukraine playing the key role in single regions grows in the epoch of globalisation as well as the significance of world influence centres.

Kuchma believes that it is a world trend that international institutions are often unable to react adequately to the challenges of time. He recalled in connection with this the discussion about preparing and conducting the warfare in Iraq and the fact that single states and world centres of influence on the whole are unable to agree on the UN role in Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

Kuchma also believes that Ukraine and Georgia must realise that they are situated in key regions, developments where determine global security and stability and the geopolitical balance of forces.

He added that Ukraine and Georgia shared foreign policy priorities: integration with the European and Euro-Atlantic structures, bilateral advance of regional co-operation, deepening relations with neighbouring states.

Co-operation between Ukraine and Georgia within the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation and the CIS is "an important factor", according to the Ukrainian leader.

"Ukraine and Georgia have traditionally common positions on settling conflicts in the Black Sea-Caucasus region," Kuchma said.