“Budapest Memorandum” Treaty Signed In 1994 May Commit U.S., Britain To Defend Ukraine

A treaty signed in 1994 by the US and Britain could pull both countries into a war to protect Ukraine if President Putin's troops cross into the country.
Bill Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma – the then-rulers of the USA, UK, Russia and Ukraine - agreed to the The Budapest Memorandum as part of the denuclearization of former Soviet republics after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Technically it means that if Russia has invaded Ukraine then it would be difficult for the US and Britain to avoid going to war.

www.dailymail.co.uk... zt7I

en.wikipedia.org...

www.theblaze.com...

weaselzippers.us...

Article explaining it in more detail: www.rferl.org...

I had not personally heard of this treaty before the media pointed it out today. I did a quick search and did not find any threads on it. I have tried to follow Ukraine threads as much as I can and also have not noticed much talk on it, so I decided to make a thread, as many possible have not heard of this, besides it being quite important as it can change the whole picture significantly, depending on how the situation goes. I do not know full details of it or how binding it is, but if it required assisting Ukraine, not following the terms of the pact would lose the respect of any of them, there are many pacts made throughout times and what is point of them, if no one follows them? If it is binding and Russia decides to take action, US and UK have not much choice.

Currently technically Russia has not started war yet, they could and Putin has licence for it, but according to contracts, they can take their army to Sevastopol base, that is what their agreement with Ukraine states, so let´s hope its just bullying, as crossing the line might easily lead to WWIII.

Does anybody know more details about the treaty? I personally do not have currently the time to search more thoroughly.

reply to post by Cabin


What? You mean we could get pulled into a war and it wouldn't be Bush's fault?!

This would stink, but a treaty is a treaty and if we singed it, we should honor it otherwise we don't deserve to expect anyone to ever help us anywhere ever again.

Do you really think Obama has the nuts to follow those treaties? I don't. Not that he should as personally I am sick of the USA sticking it's nose into other Countries business.

George Soros and his ilk should be arrested and tried for intentionally aiding destabilizing the region. Not to mention the Western Oil interests. That Putin has not clearly said "Interfere any further and we will go to war" is actually a shocker to me.

In all honesty I think Kiev will give up on Crimea and let the folks there that want to be Russian, be Russian. There are reports that some forces from Kiev have shown up in Crimea and there have been gun battles and wounded. This is a bit of a concern but I still think Kiev will back off as the Russian Military could and would flatten the crap out of them.

2 days more and it will start
Thursday, March 5 Purim and the sacrifices
O yeah, this gonna be good, lots of innocent people gonna die

ketsuko

This would stink, but a treaty is a treaty and if we singed it, we should honor it otherwise we don't deserve to expect anyone to ever help us anywhere ever again.

Not that I'm for war in Eastern Europe, far from it actually but...

Need I remind you who is presently at the helm in the US?

Cabin


Currently technically Russia has not started war yet, they could and Putin has licence for it, but according to contracts, they can take their army to Sevastopol base, that is what their agreement with Ukraine states, so let´s hope its just bullying, as crossing the line might easily lead to WWIII.

Does anybody know more details about the treaty? I personally do not have currently the time to search more thoroughly.

edit on 1-3-2014 by Cabin because: (no reason given)

There is nothing in the memorandum about either party protecting/helping/assisting any other party in case of, well, anything.

What the memorandum DOES say, is that every party shall respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty, and should refrain from engaging in armed conflicts with Ukraine. Stuff like that.

Therefore this memorandum is only relevant for Russia. :-)

My personal perspective,from the UK is this:
Putin,or "Pootie-Poots" as the previous president of the USA called him,has taken full advantage of Obama being a bit of a wuss it seems.
What other recent US president would have reacted in the same way as Obama?
None I think.
Barry's like,"Hey,lets do nothing.."
All the others would have gone into war threat mode,but not barry.
Pootie poots must be laughing tonight.

And I bet the US Republicans are having a fit of hysteria.
But what is Barry O doing?

DupontDeux
Therefore this memorandum is only relevant for Russia. :-)

Don't you mean Russia deems them irrelevant?

reply to post by Cabin


I have never heard of this treaty either. However it matters little if the new government of the Ukraine has gained power by shady means. Also one has to see the Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. quite a big difference, + it means protecting their naval base which at least till 2045 or so has been agreed on. Since the Ukraine is pretty multi ethnic it will most likely result in a divided country with the east, or at least the Crimea joining back into Russia.

there are two options in my opinion.

first, EU wanted ukraine to turn west, but they've miscalculated and lost control over the situation because those thugs in charge of ukraine are out of control, and neither EU nor USA will do anything, because they don't give a damn about ukraine and it's all just propaganda to make them look better and at the same time make putin look worse (so far putin looks much stronger on the international arena than obama and some major EU politicians),

or two, it's all going according to the plan, ukraine was never supposed to get any money nor join EU, and those thugs in charge there are just victims like whole ukraine is, and it's all to provoke moscow.

moscow has already proposed to remove their ambassador from washington. media all over EU are spreading anti-russian propaganda all the time.

guess where this is going.

Imagine if it was looking like Chinese and Russian troops were going to turn Scotland into one of their bases, England would forget about bits of paper and take Scotland out. Chinese and Russian troops on Englands border? would London accept that?

Mamatus
Do you really think Obama has the nuts to follow those treaties? I don't. Not that he should as personally I am sick of the USA sticking it's nose into other Countries business.

George Soros and his ilk should be arrested and tried for intentionally aiding destabilizing the region. Not to mention the Western Oil interests. That Putin has not clearly said "Interfere any further and we will go to war" is actually a shocker to me.

In all honesty I think Kiev will give up on Crimea and let the folks there that want to be Russian, be Russian. There are reports that some forces from Kiev have shown up in Crimea and there have been gun battles and wounded. This is a bit of a concern but I still think Kiev will back off as the Russian Military could and would flatten the crap out of them.

Did you really just say that? The treaty was signed 20 years ago, USA must up hold it as they are running out off allies.

That treaty makes it USA's business, it is a completely different situation then what bush had. This time we are Allies with Ukraine, you must help your allies.

So if we go by your theory and the USA gets attacked, dont come crying to Canada or ANY other country to help you.

Do you see how stupid your comment was?

Whatever the western countries say in public on the news;
they would all be having a party if they thought NATO could finally get into Ukraine-
This has been part of the agenda since the wall came down.
Missile shield right next door to Russia? Hell yeah says NATO!

But the Kremlin will not allow Ukraine to become a NATO base IMO.
Ukraine is their red line in the sand I think.

The cold war mentality has not gone away.
Its only been diverted from the attention of the masses by the media IMO.

Lets hope,again,that I am wrong.

There is no such a thing as Soviet Union anymore.. that treaty have had its expiration day long ago. Russia has never signed such a treaty.

Just read the Budapest memo, lets see how it takes for Russia to pull their people from uk, it looks like they are pulling theirs from usa, if the uk one goes, I think theres going to be one hell of a sh@tstorm, im definitely not hoping for it to happen, but, with putin and o'dummer heading 2 super powers involved theres not much hope, as another person in another thread has put it, its a p#ssing contest. Why o why do countrys have completely idiotic self obcessed unstable arrogant power crazed fecking fools as leaders?!, word to the wise, theres another thread on going, live, wrote by a man, whos in the thick of it in the Ukraine, (sorry no link, im on a new tablet, haven't got use to it yet!), its easy to find in the new posts, have a read after seeing anything about it on the news channels/networks, as theres plenty of misinformed biased opinions on t.v.
BVH.

dollukka
There is no such a thing as Soviet Union anymore.. that treaty have had its expiration day long ago. Russia has never signed such a treaty.

The treaty is from 1994 the Soviet Union went belly up in 1991.
Russia proper signed it. It's binding. Or should be...

can someone please explain EXACTLY where in the budeapest accord it commit the UK / US to military action ?

The Memorandum does not oblige the parties involved to go to war. It will be cited if NATO decides to go to war, however. Ironically, the EU was founded to prevent war in Europe. If the "self defense forces" do not stand down if ordered to do so by the government in Kiev, NATO just might invoke the Memorandum and render the air fields unusable through air strikes.

Well lets hope Turkey closes the waterways.

reply to post by DJW001


Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants?

I mean by default it would have to attack those fields to prevent the Ukrainians from attacking Russian forces so as to avoid a threatening of NATO countries from an expanded conflict which draw in Europe and the US.

Ironic.