B9 Summit in Bucharest
13.06.2022 / 16:12 | Aktualizováno: 18.07.2022 / 16:22
On Friday, 10th of June, the B9 Presidential Summit took place in Bucharest, at the Cotroceni Palace. The summit was held in a hybrid format with Czech President Miloš Zeman participating online. The summit dealt mainly with the current war in Ukraine and the preparations for the NATO summit to be held in Madrid at the end of June. At the end of the summit, the Heads of State adopted a joint declaration strongly condemning Russia's unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine, calling on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory, and supporting the need to "significantly" strengthen NATO's deterrent and defensive positions.
During the summit, particular emphasis was placed on the need to continue to support Ukraine and the Ukrainian people and on the importance of food security measures and strengthening NATO's relations with partners in the region. Another important avenue of discussion was the serious consequences of the war, not only from a security perspective but also from a humanitarian and economic one. At the end of the Summit, the Heads of State adopted a joint eleven-point declaration in which they strongly condemned Russia's unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine, called on Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukrainian territory, and supported the need to "significantly" strengthen NATO's deterrence and defence posture.
The Bucharest Nine, or B9 for short, is a group of nine Central and Eastern European states that are also members of NATO - the so-called NATO Eastern Wing. The group was formed in autumn 2014 in response to the deterioration of the security situation in Eastern Europe. The countries represented in the group are the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania.