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OPINION DECEMBER 27, 2024 | The Indian Eye 10

The Budapest Memorandum at 30:

Lessons in Geopolitics, Trust, and

Fragile Security Assurance

The Budapest Memorandum, signed in 1994, marked its 30th anniversary in 2024. It is now 30 years

since Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal in exchange for security guarantees by Russia, the US, and the
UK. The promises remain unfulfilled and have left Ukraine in a precarious position, casting a shadow of

doubt over the promises of security assurances in an anarchic international system

PRACHI R.

n 5 December 2024, the
Budapest Memorandum
Omarked its 30th anniversary.
In 1994, Ukraine gave up its nucle-
ar arsenal by signing the Budapest
Memorandum in exchange for secu-
rity guarantees. Thirty years on, that
choice has evolved into a poignant
lesson for geopolitics.
The memorandum, officially
known as the Budapest Memoran-
dum on Security Assurances, marked
a pivotal moment in post-Cold War
international relations and shaped
the discourse on nuclear non-prolif-
eration and nuclear security. How-
ever, subsequent events like Russia’s
annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its
full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022
have shown that the promises that
were enshrined in the memorandum
were not fulfilled. These develop-
ments left Ukraine in a precarious
position and sparked intense debate
over the reliability of security assur- The Budapest Memorandum was a landmark agreement. In exchange for Ukraine’s accession to the NPT as a non-nuclear state, the signatories
ance in an anarchic international sys-
tem. pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity (Agency file photo)
The memorandum was signed
on the sidelines of the Budapest was a landmark agreement. In ex- diate UN Security Council action if al politics of the time, creating new
Summit of the Conference on Se- change for Ukraine’s accession to the Ukraine is subjected to aggression independent states, each grappling
curity and Cooperation in Europe NPT as a non-nuclear state, the sig- involving nuclear weapons; commit- with its share of the Soviet legacy.
(CSCE) by three guarantors’: the natories pledged to respect Ukraine’s ment to avoid economic pressure Among these, Ukraine emerged
Russian Federation, the United sovereignty, territorial integrity, and undermining Ukraine’s sovereign- as the unintentional nuclear pow-
States of America, and the United independence in accordance with the ty; and assurance not to use nuclear er. Ukraine, by virtue of its geog-
Kingdom of Britain and Northern 1975 Helsinki Final Act of the CSCE. weapons against non-nuclear weap- raphy within the erstwhile Soviet
Ireland. The treaty facilitated the ac- Key provisions of the memo- on states like Ukraine, except under Union, had inherited approximate-
cession of three countries, Ukraine, randum included the reaffirmation specific conditions involving attacks ly 1900 strategic nuclear warheads
Belarus and Kazakhstan, formerly to respect Ukraine’s independence, by nuclear-armed alliances. The as- along with advanced delivery sys-
a part of the Soviet Union, to the sovereignty, and existing borders; surances were intended to provide tems like Intercontinental Ballis-
Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of to refrain from using or threatening Ukraine with the security guarantees tic Missiles (ICBM) and strategic
nuclear weapons (NPT) as non-nu- force against Ukraine’s territorial it required in a precarious geopoliti- bombers and became the third-larg-
clear weapon states in exchange for integrity or political independence, cal environment. est nuclear power in the world.
security guarantees. except in self-defense or as per the The collapse of the Soviet Ukraine’s nuclear inheritance came
The Budapest Memorandum UN Charter; pledge to seek imme- Union in 1991 reshaped the glob- Continued on next page... >>

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