MOSCOW, Dec 31 - RIA Novosti. Hungary is interested in successful negotiations between Russia and NATO, which will take place in January, because they give hope for mutual understanding between the parties, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
Negotiations on security guarantees will begin with consultations in Geneva between the Russian Federation and the United States on January 10, and then continue at a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council on January 12 in Brussels and on January 13 in Vienna at the OSCE site.
"We understand that negotiations between Russia and NATO are coming, we are very pleased with this fact, because if NATO and Russia talk to each other, there will be hope for some kind of mutual understanding. We consider security issues in Europe to be critically important, so anything designed to reduce tensions in this regard serves our interests. Therefore, we are interested in successful negotiations between Russia and NATO next year," Szijjarto said in an interview with RT.
At the end of 2021, Russia published drafts of a treaty with the United States and an agreement with NATO on security guarantees. In the draft agreement on security guarantees with NATO, Russia proposes to exclude the expansion of the alliance and the accession of Ukraine, to abandon military activities in Ukraine and in other countries of Eastern Europe, Transcaucasia and Central Asia. As of May 1997, Russia and NATO members should abandon the deployment of forces and weapons on the territory of other European countries in addition to the forces that were there at that time.
According to the draft agreement, Moscow and NATO also undertake not to place intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles in each other's reach; not to create conditions that can be regarded as a threat by the other side; to confirm that they do not consider each other as adversaries and to create hotlines for emergency contacts.
As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told RIA Novosti, if NATO and the United States do not respond to Russia's demand for security guarantees, this could lead to a new round of confrontation.
