Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances

The Budapest Memorandum was signed in Budapest on 5 December 1994 in the context of taking place there CSCE.

Content and background

In the memorandum, the U.S., the UK and Russia committed in three separate statements each against Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine, in return for a nuclear weapons surrender the sovereignty and the existing borders of the country (Art. 1) as well as their political and economic independence must be ensured ( Article 2 f ) and in the case of a nuclear attack on the countries immediately to take such action by the UN Security Council ( Article 4).

These three states had come into the possession of nuclear weapons as part of the dissolution of the USSR. The Budapest Memorandum was a precondition for the signing and ratification of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. By 1996, all nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union were brought to Russia, the successor state of the USSR has the right to the possession of nuclear weapons.

The treaty was ratified by all parties and signed into law.

China and France gave to the security guarantee of Ukraine from its own explanations. In addition, French President François Mitterrand wrote on 5 December 1994 this a personal letter.

Effects

• During the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute of the year 2005 /06, the Ukrainian government under President Viktor Yushchenko considered as declared by the mirror to take the signatories of legally binding Memorandum on assistance to Ukraine to complete.
• As part of the Krimkrise 2014, the U.S. and the UK indicated the agreement and interpreted the Russian behavior in the Crimea as non-compliance with the Memorandum and clear violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Similar comments were made to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki -moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Russia, in turn, appreciated " the threats of the EU and U.S. sides during the riots in Kiev, sanctions against the Ukrainian governance ( under President Yanukovych ) impose " and the later " recognition of the coup in Kiev " as a breach of obligations under the Budapest Memorandum.