A vote by a country in the United Nations in favour of the membership of another country is an implicit recognition of that country by the country so voting, as only states may be members of the UN. On the other hand, a negative vote for U.N. membership does not necessarily mean non-recognition of the applicant as a state, as other criteria, requirements or special circumstances may be considered relevant for U.N. membership. Similarly, a country may chose not to apply for U.N. membership for its own reasons, as was the case with the Vatican, and Switzerland was not a member until 2002 because of its concerns to maintain its neutrality policy.