Ex-UK PM Blair’s Govt Chose Not to Forge Closer Ties with Ukraine, Complicate NATO-Russia Ties – News18

Britain should have forged a “closer relationship” with Ukraine two decades ago to help prevent “any resurgence of Russian imperialism to the West”, a top UK government aide urged at the time.

In a confidential July 2001 memo, senior foreign policy adviser Roger Liddle laid out a “worst case” scenario of “Russian intervention in Ukraine” and fierce internal resistance to the “erosion of their country’s hard won independence”.

The prescient warnings, made to then-prime minister Tony Blair, are contained in hundreds of newly released pages of Ukraine-related British government documents covering the period 2001-2002.

They show the UK grappling with how to respond to Ukrainian aspirations to join NATO and the European Union, a decade after Kyiv won independence following the 1991 collapse of the USSR.

Both long-held ambitions remain unfulfilled today, with some arguing the West should have admitted the now war-ravaged country back then to prevent Russia’s full-scale invasion last year.

In the internal government briefings and correspondence, London can be seen broadly supporting Kyiv’s pro-Western ambitions but also placing stringent stipulations on the eastern European country and appearing hesitant at visibly bolstering ties.

One internal memo rules out a state visit by the two countries’ respective leaders in 2002 and 2003.

In a note to the Foreign Office, senior Downing Street official Michael Tatham writes that the UK needs to engage “without being lured into taking too benign a view of the country’s imperfections”.

‘Unrealistic hopes’

Another memo detailed London’s opposition at the time to Ukraine taking the next step in joining NATO and getting a so-called “membership action plan”.

The internal paper noted Kyiv was “far from meeting criteria expected” and such a step would “raise unrealistic hopes of an early invitation” and “greatly complicate our handling of the new NATO-Russia relationship”.

The document, marked “confidential”, states the move “might also stimulate applications form Georgia, Azerbaijan and possibly others”.

During this period — soon after the 9/11 attacks in the United States — NATO and its Western members were prioritising warming relations with Russia, and its relatively new president, Vladimir Putin.

In power since 1999, Putin had voiced support for the US’s so-called “war on terror”, leading Western allies to see an opportunity.

In a November 2001 letter to then-NATO secretary general George Robertson, Blair lauds the “new beginning” in ties between Moscow and the military alliance.

“I am convinced from my own contacts with President Putin that there is genuine desire to develop a new partnership with NATO,” he writes.

Two decades on, history has proved otherwise, with relations between Russia and the West at a historic low, not seen since the days of the Cold War.

Meanwhile in 2008, NATO left Ukraine in a grey zone by vowing it will become a member but failing to back that up with any concrete progress.

‘Russian imperialism’

In the internal memos Liddle, now a member of Britain’s unelected House of Lords, detailed Ukraine’s strategic importance.

In his role as Blair’s leading adviser on the region, he held a series of regular summits with Ukrainian counterparts, gleaning insights into diplomatic thinking in Kyiv.

In December 2001, Liddle reported to Blair that the Ukrainians believed “we have too rosy a view of Putin (who according to them is a clever, presentable power politician, but no democratic hero)”.

In his letter sent six months earlier, he noted Ukraine’s desire to forge a “special relationship” with Britain, “if only we would show more interest”.

“Strengthening Ukraine’s shaky democracy and economy increases stability on the EU’s future eastern borders and acts as a formidable barrier to any resurgence of Russian imperialism to the West,” he wrote.

“An implosion of Ukraine would at best lead to mass migratory pressures from a country of 50m (million) people across a porous EU border.

“At the very worst, it could lead to Russian intervention in Ukraine and a civil war started by Western Ukrainians who would fiercly resist erosion of their country’s hard won independence.”

Liddle also warned of Europe becoming “highly dependent on Russian gas for our energy needs, for which at the moment the Ukrainian pipeline represents the principal supply route”.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)