Ukraine passes on joining post-Soviet CSTO bloc - Foreign Ministry
14:3528/05/2010 KIEV, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine will not join the post-Soviet Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) bloc as it contradicts its non-alignment policy, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko said on Friday.
"We have a rather clear non-alignment policy. Moreover, CSTO is too far from us. The center of this bloc is somewhere in the south, in Central Asia," Hryshchenko said in an interview with the Ukrainian 2000 weekly.
The CSTO comprises Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
The minister also said Ukraine has dropped its attempts of seeking NATO membership and thus has "opened the prospects for partnership and cooperation with Russia."
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