Bucharest Nine summit: US president to join virtual event

US president Joe Biden, state secretary Antony Blinken, and NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg will join by video conference the virtual summit of the heads of state of the Bucharest Nine (B9), held today, May 10.

The summit is hosted by Romanian president Klaus Iohannis and Polish president Andrzej Duda, who is visiting Romania on May 10.

Glad to welcome @POTUS @JoeBiden🇺🇸 to #Bucharest9 Summit which I host in Bucharest today.Together w/President @AndrzejDuda🇵🇱 we'll also welcome B9 HoS & @jensstoltenberg, in preparation of NATO Summit, focusing on Transatlantic ties, #NATO2030, defence&deterrence on #EasternFlank — Klaus Iohannis (@KlausIohannis) May 10, 2021

The agenda of the high-level meeting covers the preparations for the NATO Summit that will be held in Brussels in June, with a focus on consolidating the transatlantic relationship and of the allied stance on the Eastern Flank, the Romanian Presidential Administration said in a press release.

The meeting is also held in the context of the recent worrying security developments in the Black Sea region, it said.

The B9 initiative, launched by the Romanian and Polish presidents, includes NATO’s eastern flank members: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia.

The first B9 summit was held in Bucharest in November 2015. Other meetings followed in Warsaw, in June 2018, and Košice, in February 2019.