Bosnia-Herzegovina is likely to take a major step this week in its ambition to join NATO, the military alliance’s secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said Monday.

NATO foreign ministers are expected Wednesday to activate Bosnia’s Membership Action Plan, a reform process that prepares countries for membership. Even though the route to future membership would become clearer for Bosnia, the Balkan country is unlikely to join NATO soon, AP reported.

Stoltenberg said that he expects the ministers, meeting in Brussels, to signal that “we are ready to receive the first annual national program” from the ethnically-divided country, which was riven by war in the 1990s when the former Yugoslavia broke apart.

“Then it’s up to Bosnia-Herzegovina to decide whether they use this opportunity,” Stoltenberg added.