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Wednesday’s B9 summit, one of the most important diplomatic events organised in Romania this year, brought together the leaders of NATO’s eastern flank, as well as the Nordic countries, the NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, a US delegation and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n
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A total 16 delegations attended this year’s B9 format, created by Romania and Poland after Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2015, to coordinate the positions of NATO states on the Alliance’s eastern flank.<\/p>\n
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This year\u2019s summit was held in a tense context, marked by the war in Ukraine and debates on the future of European security. Russia remains the most significant and direct long-term threat to Euro-Atlantic security, according to the joint declaration at the end of the summit, which also mentions the decision of member states to invest more in defence in the face of Moscow’s aggression. The statement firmly condemns Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and reaffirms support for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders.<\/p>\n
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President Nicu\u015for Dan said the B9 meeting took place in preparation for the NATO summit in Ankara in July and stressed the importance of the transatlantic relationship:<\/p>\n
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Nicu\u015for Dan: \u201cThe decisions we have taken are to stand by our commitments to increase military spending, to turn this money into capabilities that will make the Alliance better prepared for threats, and to balance the contributions of European countries and the US within the alliance.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The president of Poland, Karol Nawrocki, also spoke about the need for a strong transatlantic relationship, and emphasised that he supported the broadening of the B9 format to include the Nordic countries. We are firm supporters of the expansion or broadening of this B9 format to include the Nordic countries\u2014Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark\u2014and in this way to broaden our security perspective along the entire vertical axis of the eastern flank, north to south, Karol Nawrocki pointed out.<\/p>\n
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In turn, NATO\u2019s secretary general Mark Rutte said the eastern flank must be defended, as Russia remains a long-term threat to the security of member states. We cannot let our guard down, we must do everything in our power to defend the states on NATO territory, Rutte emphasised.<\/p>\n
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The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who attended the summit in Bucharest, thanked for the support provided to Ukraine and said the Allies must ensure that Russia no longer dominates and destabilises its neighbours. \u201cIt is critical for you to continue supporting Ukraine, because it is the most important thing stopping Russia at the moment,\u201d Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
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The next B9 summit will be held in Warsaw. (AMP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wednesday’s B9 summit, one of the most important diplomatic events organised in Romania this year, brought together the leaders of NATO’s eastern flank, as well as the Nordic countries, the NATO secretary general Mark Rutte, a US delegation and the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A total 16 delegations attended this year’s B9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":1017373,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[154979,45762,190838,151116],"coauthors":[113249],"class_list":["post-1017539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-b9-2","tag-nato-2","tag-nordic-allies","tag-summit-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n