Reforms needed before membership of NATO

Although Ukraine has officially abandoned its nonaligned status, it is not seeking immediate membership in NATO, an official from the country's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

"Our strategy is not to ask for the membership right now, but to prepare for it," Alexei Makeev, head of the Policy and Communications Department at the Foreign Ministry, said at a conference entitled Ukraine-NATO: Partnership for a United and Free Europe.

Makeev said Kiev should implement a number of reforms and bring the country closer to the standards of NATO member states before formally applying for membership in the alliance.