The Eastern Flank Summit
Romania’s President Nicușor Dan took part on Thursday in Gdańsk, Poland, in the Eastern Flank Summit. Attending the meeting were also the president of Lithuania and the prime ministers of Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Latvia.
Roxana Vasile, 26.06.2026, 14:00
Next year’s Eastern Flank Summit will take place in Romania, President Nicușor Dan announced. In a joint press statement with the leaders who attended the Gdańsk meeting, he addressed the security situation in the region and Romania’s role. He sais that the participating countries jointly recognize Russia as a collective threat and expressed solidarity with Ukraine, emphasizing continued support for its war effort, which also protects Europe. He added that the EU–NATO relationship must remain complementary in defending Europe, and that all participating states understand the need to increase defense spending, turning it into concrete military equipment.
Nicusor Dan: “The Eastern Flank Conference is a format that, as you know, was established six months ago in Helsinki. This was its second edition. The goal was to reaffirm our solidarity, to underline that we are the countries in the immediate vicinity of the war and the European states most threatened by Russia, as recent events in Romania and in other countries have shown. We also wanted to state that we are working together for the best possible cooperation between the European Union and NATO. At the beginning of July, we will have the NATO Summit in Ankara, and each of our countries will present its commitments regarding security spending, as we agreed a year ago in The Hague.”
President Nicușor Dan also addressed Romania’s direct priorities: “We reiterated the importance of the southern part of the Eastern Flank and of the Black Sea. Once again, we emphasized how important the Black Sea security hub is — a project we have advanced together with Bulgaria — not only for Romania but for Europe as a whole. We are talking about real freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and, therefore, the possibility of economic exchanges with the Caucasus region, which is extremely important given that we are clearly in an energy crisis, and the Caucasus can serve as an energy supplier for Europe.”
The heads of state and government also discussed defense procurement programs, both under the current financial framework and the next one, involving a substantial sum of 130 billion euros for military equipment and military mobility, according to Nicușor Dan.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk noted that Poland has long insisted that defending the Eastern Flank should be a shared responsibility of the entire European Union. This is also why European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attended the Gdańsk meeting. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda emphasized that the NATO Summit in Ankara must deliver a unified message: given the war in Ukraine, strong US involvement on the Eastern Flank is absolutely necessary. (EE)
