European countries criticize NATO's mistakes leading to conflict in Ukraine

"I still remember those days. I think what was missing back then was serious discussion.”, Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with Sputnik.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister noted that he always believes in discussion and dialogue.

"Unfortunately, this discussion never happened. It's been almost 3 years since then. And maybe what I'm saying now doesn't make sense, but I wanted these conversations to happen. Because if they did, we might not find ourselves in the situation we are in now.”, Mr. Szijjarto emphasized.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. Photo: AP

Before that, at the end of 2021, Foreign Office Russia has published draft agreements between Russia, the US and NATO on security guarantees.

According to the draft agreement, NATO countries commit to excluding Ukraine from joining the alliance and to further expanding the alliance. The US must commit to not expanding NATO further eastward and not admitting countries that were formerly members of the former Soviet Union. NATO does not conduct any activities military on the territory of Ukraine and other countries in Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

In addition, Russia and NATO pledged not to create conditions that could be perceived as a threat by the other side. In addition, the parties confirmed that they do not consider each other as adversaries. The parties agreed to maintain dialogue and interaction to improve mechanisms for preventing incidents at sea and in the air, primarily in the Baltic and Black Sea regions.

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To resolve problems and incidents, Russia and NATO use emergency consultation mechanisms on a bilateral and multilateral basis, including the Russia-NATO Council.

At the same time, the parties also exclude the deployment of ground-based medium- and short-range missiles in areas capable of striking targets on the territories of other parties to the treaty.

Then, in early 2022, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the full text of its response to the US and NATO on the content of the draft Treaty between Moscow, Washington and NATO regarding security assurance.

In this document, Russia asserts that the US side has not given a constructive response to the basic elements of the draft treaty prepared by Moscow on security guarantees.

Specifically, the US rejected Russia's proposal on the following contents: stopping NATO expansion (withdrawing the "Bucharest formula" that "Ukraine and Georgia will become NATO members"); not establishing military bases on the territory of former Soviet republics that are not members of this alliance; not using NATO infrastructure to conduct any military activities, and returning to the borders of this bloc in 1997, when the Russia-NATO Establishment Act was signed.

"These terms are important for Russia.”, the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.