Nine NATO eastern flank countries constitute the Bucharest Nine – Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Latvian President Egils Levits said after the meeting:
"We had a joint understanding on two points we discussed today. The first is that we must strengthen the NATO eastern flank, a reinforced ally presence is needed in the entire flank, of course, including the Baltic States. It has partially happened since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. But there must be a follow-up.
"The second is that we understand that we must help Ukraine in all kinds of ways, military, politically, economically. I emphasized that Latvia stands for Ukraine's inclusion into the European Union. There are ongoing discussions about it, but here we also think that it is necessary to strengthen the integration of Ukraine and Europe."
#NATO must seriously reinforce its presence throughout NATO's Eastern flank and in particular in the #Baltic region. This must be reflected in the new strategic concept to be adopted at the NATO Summit in #Madrid. pic.twitter.com/ptA7eku2bf
— Egils Levits (@valstsgriba) June 10, 2022
