Iohannis: Together with the President of Poland, we decided to hold a B9 NATO Summit in Bucharest

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has welcomed his Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda, at Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest today, announcing they agreed to hold B9 NATO Summit in Bucharest, two weeks earlier than the NATO meeting in July this year.

“For the preparation of the NATO Summit that will take place in July in Madrid, I decided today, together with President Duda, to organize in Bucharest a B9 Format Summit, which I will host here in Cotroceni. We will meet two weeks before the Allied Summit to coordinate our positions on the substantial consolidation of the Eastern Flank, “said Klaus Iohannis.

The Romanian head of state also said that he “agreed with President Duda that Romania and Poland should intensify their particularly substantial cooperation on security.”

“I thanked President Duda for Poland’s contribution to NATO structures in Romania, including the Polish military on the ground, present since 2017, and I assured him that Romania will continue its contribution to the NATO Fighting Group and other allied units on Polish territory,” Iohannis added.

The Romanian President also pointed out that “we urgently need a consistent and balanced consolidation of the Eastern Flank, a united and strengthened Forward Presence.”

“An increased allied military presence is needed in our country and in the Black Sea region, in response to a strictly defensive response to Russia’s aggression. A clear and necessary example in this regard is the creation of a NATO Combat Group in Romania as soon as possible. We must take immediate action, with long-term effects, and I will support this at the NATO Summit, which will now take place on Thursday in Brussels.

We want, together with Poland, a clear reaffirmation of NATO’s fundamental priority task – collective defense. President Biden’s visit to Europe and his participation in the Allied Summit for more than two days send, once again, a strong message of Allied unity and solidarity, but also of the support of the United States for our security. Together with President Duda, we also addressed our common priorities in the transatlantic relationship, especially in the current context,” President Iohannis stated.

At the same time, the Romanian president said that Romania and Poland are both endorsing the Republic of Moldova’s territorial sovereignty and integrity, and that they firmly support Moldova’s, Ukraine’s and Georgia’s bids to join the European Union, while acting so that these goals come true.

In his turn, Poland’s President, Andrzej Duda, said that under the current circumstances prompted by the Russians’ invasion in Ukraine a new strategic vision of NATO is needed.

“Considering what has happened in Ukraine, an unprecedented aggression by the Russian Federation against this sovereign country, given the advancing occupation, given the crisis that is related to it, the security crisis, for us, but also for the whole of Europe, it can be said that for the whole world, we need a new conception of NATO (…) First of all, NATO’s new strategic concept, which is now being developed, must take into account these changes, which were naturally generated by Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, and this must be taken into account in the future,” said the Polish president, according to the official translation.