KIEV, May 16 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine will remain a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States even though the loose association of former Soviet republics has no future in its current form, the foreign minister said Tuesday.
Georgia is considering pulling out from the organization, which has 11 full members and one associate member, and started consultations with Ukraine on a withdrawal as the two countries seek NATO membership and European integration.
But although Borys Tarasyuk, Ukraine's foreign minister, played down the possibility that his country might leave the group, he said it had little chance of survival if it were not reformed.
"The CIS does not have a future in its current form," he said.
Tarasyuk said the organization, which has been criticized for being under an undue level of Russian influence, needed an overhaul to make it more efficient.
"No one is raising the issue of leaving the CIS," the minister said. "We will be doing everything possible to change the agenda [of the organization] and to make the CIS work on issues that are of interest to its member countries and their citizens."
