The presidents of the three Baltic states are among the nine leaders of NATO member states in Europe, who are discussing security issues in Eastern Europe with US President Joe Biden following his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Polish broadcaster Polskie Radio reports.
The video conference call on Thursday, December 9, is expected to bring together presidents from nations referred to as the Bucharest Nine (B9) group: the Baltic states, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. The Bucharest Nine is a Polish-Romanian diplomatic format for Eastern Europe and the Baltic region launched in 2015. Its goal is to exchange views and coordinate positions on the security of NATO’s eastern-flank members.
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Washington announced in a statement on Wednesday, December 8, that the US President «will convene a call with the leaders of the Bucharest Nine group of our eastern flank NATO Allies to brief them on his call with President Putin, hear their perspectives on the current security situation, and underscore the United States’ commitment to transatlantic security.»
Joe Biden also plans to discuss it with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Thursday. Earlier this week, the US President said to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the West was concerned Russia would invade Ukraine and warned of «strong economic and other measures» as punishment should Moscow start a military conflict, in line with a statement from the White House.