Only 7 of 11 Ex-Soviet Republics Sign New Commonwealth Charter

Only seven out of 11 countries signed the new charter of the Commonwealth of Independent States at a critical summit Friday, dashing Russian hopes that the loose grouping of nations could now evolve into a closer union.

Ukraine, Moldova and Turkmenistan rejected the Commonwealth charter, agreeing instead only to a declaration leaving the door open for signing the 27-page document within the next year. Azerbaijan, which no longer considers itself a Commonwealth member, attended only as an observer.

The summit also failed to produce agreement on who controls the Soviet nuclear weapons still left in Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus. Russia has the sole technical power to launch them, but their legal ownership remains unclear.

Russia and the Central Asian states that want tighter ties among the former Soviet republics tried to put a good face on the patchy results. Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev contended that the seven countries that signed could “be considered the forces for integration of the C.I.S.”

But Ukraine, while remaining a Commonwealth member, maintained its role as the group’s stubborn, leading skeptic. “I don’t want to live in a world of illusions and end up burying one more illusion,” Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk said of his refusal to sign the charter. “Because in half a year, in three months, people will ask: ‘Did you sign it (the charter)?’--’Yes.’--’Then why isn’t it working?’ ”

Ukraine rejected the agreement on strategic nuclear arms as well. It remains locked in a dispute with Russia over legal claims to the 176 Soviet missiles left on Ukrainian territory and has raised doubts about its previous pledge to give up its nuclear weapons.

The 10 Commonwealth members did manage to agree on the creation of an Inter-State Bank to coordinate finances; they signed an array of other economic documents. Despite its political deadlock, the Commonwealth remains a useful tool for keeping the former Soviet economy running.

Just over a year since the leaders of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus pronounced the Soviet Union dead and created the Commonwealth at a Dec. 8, 1991, meeting at a countryside retreat near Minsk, they took a moment Friday to assess the fledgling organization’s halting progress.

Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin argued that the Commonwealth “prevented the collapse of a nuclear superpower. You can just imagine what would have happened with nuclear weapons if not for the C.I.S.”

Belarus President Stanislav Shushkevich said the Commonwealth had “stopped the insane process of collapse” of the Soviet Union, and even Kravchuk allowed that without the Commonwealth, “things would have been worse.”

Yeltsin made a prepared pitch for taking the group a step further. “The Commonwealth is faced with a choice: either to live in misery and make a pretense of making efforts, or to transform itself into one of the influential, integrated formations of the world.”

But his proposal met with little enthusiasm. Asked at a post-summit news conference if he had presented Russia’s ideas for a new, more integrated Commonwealth at the meeting, Yeltsin let a full 10 seconds pass, then broke into a pained grin and said the agenda had been too full.

The Commonwealth charter appeared to demand little new of members, allowing them to choose between full membership or associate status. Ukraine, Turkmenistan and Moldova said they were opposed to the very idea of a “supra-national” body. They argued for an organization that would focus exclusively on economic ties.

And even economic ties could be more limited, said Kravchuk, who noted that former Soviet republics might do better to integrate themselves more into the world economy and worry less about retaining the ties of the inefficient, excessively centralized Soviet economy.

Kravchuk, a former Communist leader who now makes a show of resisting Moscow, made no secret that he was operating under brutal pressure from domestic nationalists who want Ukraine to quit the Commonwealth altogether and that he did not dare sign the charter without approval from his Parliament. “One shouldn’t press the people today,” he said. “Believe me, you’re tossing them from left to right, from right to left, from up to down and down to up. They don’t know who to listen to anymore.”

If Kravchuk’s reluctance to join the charter stemmed from political tension at home, Turkmenistan’s resistance seemed simply the result of the unique post-Soviet path it has chosen: It remains a quiet, virtual Communist state under strict one-man rule and keeps its distance from its neighbors.

Azerbaijan had signed the Commonwealth agreement last winter, but its Parliament never ratified its membership, and its new leadership has attended meetings only as observers.

As for tiny Moldova, split between ethnic Romanians and ethnic Slavs in a still-volatile conflict, it was unwilling to introduce any more political complications into its explosive mix, President Mircea Snegur said.

But the Commonwealth actually promised some greater stability for the Central Asian state of Tajikistan, where civil war has been fueled by arms smuggled in from neighboring Afghanistan. The six Commonwealth countries that signed a security agreement last May agreed Friday to each send a battalion to help close off Tajikistan’s battered border.

The next Commonwealth summit could influence another regional conflict: the long-running battle between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The summit is set for April 30 in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, where an Azerbaijani blockade has continued off and on for so long that apartments go unheated, bread is scarce and most factories are closed down.

Times special correspondent Ostroukh reported from Minsk, and Times staff writer Goldberg reported from Moscow.