Ukraine president's visit may irk US

NEW DELHI: Within days of the concluding round of talks with the US on a new strategic framework, including cooperation in the area of ‘‘counter- proliferation’’, India is to play host to a man Washington accused of selling arms to Iraq illegally.
Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma, who will arrive in India on October 2 on the invitation of President Kalam, has been identified by Washington as the key person in the clandestine sale of a radar system, called Kolchuga, to Iraq.
According to government sources: ‘‘The issues which had arisen in the US-Ukraine relationship should not be seen as affecting our relationship with Ukraine.’’
The Bush administration, on the basis of a conversation recorded and provided to the US by former Ukrainian presidential bodyguard Mykola Melnychenko, suspended the $50 million assistance it gives to Ukraine under the Freedom Support Act earlier this week. It is even considering further action. The conversation, recorded in July 2000, reportedly has Kuchma approving the clandestine sale.
Ukrainian foreign minister Anatoly Zlenko has rushed to the UN to hold talks on the issue. NATO has already expressed its concern with secretary general George Robertson, saying ‘‘very serious questions’’ needed to be answered.
Until this action, Ukraine was one of the top five recipients of US aid for the past 10 years.
Ukraine’s economic minister Oleksandr Shlapak has, however, said there was no proof that Kiev had sold weapons illegally to Iraq. The US has also acknowledged that it was not certain whether the Kolchuga system had actually been sent to Iraq or been deployed there.
Though Kuchma’s visit was scheduled well before the controversy, Washington is likely to be irritated by the fact that an alleged ‘‘sanctions buster’’ will be feted in the inner portals of the Rashtrapati Bhawan and have meetings with the PM.