Bucharest Nine

Bucharest Nine or the Bucharest Format (B9 or B-9; Polish: Bukaresztańska Dziewiątka, Romanian: Formatul București) is an organization founded on 4 November 2015 in Bucharest, Romania, at the initiative of the President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and the President of Poland Andrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them.[1] Its members are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Its apparition was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude from Russia following the annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its posterior intervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the former Soviet Union (USSR) or the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact.[2][3] An eastwards expansion of organizations such as B9 or the Three Seas Initiative to cover other countries like Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine has been proposed, although such a thing has not been publicly discussed within them.[3]

Bucharest Nine
Bucharest Format
Members of Bucharest Nine
Membership
Establishment4 November 2015

On 10 May 2021, during a B9 video conference summit to which the President of the United States Joe Biden joined, Iohannis (one of the two hosts of the summit, the other being Duda) said "Eastern European NATO states would like a bigger allied military presence on the bloc's eastern flank" following the mobilization of Russian troops near the Russian border with Ukraine which had happened some time before.[4]

List of summits and meetings

Since its foundation on 4 November 2015, Bucharest Nine has held several meetings at various levels. These are the following:[2]

Summits of heads of state
B9 summits of heads of state
YearDateCountryCityHost leader
20154 November RomaniaBucharestKlaus Iohannis[1]
20188 June PolandWarsawAndrzej Duda[5]
201928 February SlovakiaKošiceAndrej Kiska[6]
202110 May RomaniaBucharestKlaus Iohannis and Andrzej Duda[7]
202225 February PolandWarsawAndrzej Duda[8]
TBATBA RomaniaBucharestKlaus Iohannis[9]

Summits of ministers of foreign affairs
Bucharest Nine ministerial meeting in Tallinn, Estonia, on 27 October 2021
B9 meetings of foreign affairs ministers
YearDateCountryCity
20168 November RomaniaBucharest[10]
20179 October PolandWarsaw[11]
202010 March LithuaniaVilnius[12]
202127 October EstoniaTallinn[13]

Summits of ministers of defence
B9 meetings of defence ministers
YearDateCountryCity
201812–14 March RomaniaBucharest[14]
20194 April PolandWarsaw[15]
202125 November RomaniaBucharest[16]

See also

References
  1. "Bilateral visit of President of Romania, Mr. Klaus Iohannis, in the Republic of Poland and his participation in the High Level Meeting of the Bucharest Format (B9), on 7-8 June 2018". President of Romania. 5 June 2018.
  2. Gerasymchuk, Sergiy (2019). "Bucharest Nine: looking for cooperation on NATO's eastern flank?" (PDF). Friedrich Ebert Foundation. pp. 1–10.
  3. Rotaru, Vasile; Umland, Andreas (10 November 2017). "How Romania and Poland can strengthen NATO and the EU". Foreign Affairs.
  4. "Romanian president says more NATO presence needed in Eastern Europe". Reuters. 10 May 2021.
  5. "President Iohannis attends the B9 summit in Warsaw". Nine O'Clock. 8 June 2018.
  6. "NATO Secretary General stresses importance of transatlantic unity on visit to Slovakia". NATO. 28 February 2019.
  7. Gabaroi, Bogdan (10 May 2021). Panaitescu, Adina (ed.). "Bucharest Format Summit (B9) hosted by President Iohannis together with his Polish counterpart". Agerpres.
  8. "President says an honest Europe must halt aggression". The First News. 25 February 2022.
  9. Dădăcuș, Mirela (22 March 2022). "Klaus Iohannis: Am decis împreună cu președintele Poloniei să organizăm la București un Summit al statelor NATO în format B9" (in Romanian). RFI România.
  10. "Foreign Ministers of nine allied states of the Eastern Flank, NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller meet in Bucharest to discuss security in the region". Nine O'Clock. 8 November 2016.
  11. "Meeting of Foreign Affairs Ministers of the Bucharest 9 Format". Embassy of Romania in Warsaw. 9 October 2017.
  12. "Vilnius hosted the Bucharest Nine meeting of ministers of foreign affairs". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania. 12 March 2020.
  13. "NATO's Eastern Flank foreign ministers discuss security in Europe, future of the Alliance and new strategic concept". Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. 27 October 2021.
  14. Gheorghe, Georgeta (12 March 2018). "Ministers of Defence of 'Bucharest 9' initiative meet at Palace of Parliament". European Business Review.
  15. "National Security Bureau head: Bucharest Nine unity strengthens NATO". President of Poland. 5 April 2019.
  16. "B9 countries in solidarity with hybrid aggression". Government of Poland. 25 November 2021.
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