[7] When Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined on March 29, 2004,[8] U.S. President George W. Bush prepared for even further expansion of the alliance.
[12] At the end of November 2020, it became known that the NATO Summit in 2021 would consider a return to the open door policy, including the issue of providing Georgia with a Membership Action Plan (MAP).
Weakness will provoke them... NATO must show that doors are open and promises kept.” Stoltenberg said that “The Russian military buildup has not stopped.
Stoltenberg was clear that the alliance would not heed Russia's demand to withdraw the invitation for Ukraine and Georgia to join NATO—or for any country to pursue the path of its choosing.
[11] On January 28, 2022, an op-ed was published by the New York University School of Law in which the author disclosed that in two drafts of a 2021 NATO-Russia treaty, "Moscow placed the onus of averting an expanded conflict in Ukraine on the West broadly, NATO particularly, and the United States specifically.
"[17] In the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the leaders of the 30 NATO member countries held a meeting on March 24, 2022 in Brussels and one result was a statement which read in part:[18] "Massive sanctions and heavy political costs have been imposed on Russia to bring an end to this war.
We reaffirm our commitment to NATO's Open Door Policy under Article 10 of the Washington Treaty... We will continue to take all necessary steps to protect and defend the security of our Allied populations and every inch of Allied territory... We are also establishing four additional multinational battlegroups in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia... President Putin's choice to attack Ukraine is a strategic mistake, with grave consequences also for Russia and the Russian people.