NATO eastern-flank defence ministers confer in Bucharest
PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki
13.03.2018 10:50
Poland "attaches great importance" to cooperation with other nations on the eastern flank of NATO, the country’s defence minister said on Tuesday.
Mariusz BłaszczakKPRM/P.Tracz (Public Domain)
Mariusz Błaszczak was speaking in Bucharest where he met with his counterparts from Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia.
These eight NATO eastern-flank countries together with Poland form a group known as the Bucharest Nine, or B9.
“We are aware of the threats and that is why we are creating a real security system," Błaszczak said during the meeting in the Romanian capital, as quoted by Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Meanwhile, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has told public broadcaster Polish Radio that there is no time limit for the presence of NATO troops on the alliance's eastern flank.
The troops will stay there as long as needed, Stoltenberg said on Polish Radio 1 on Tuesday.
NATO leaders meeting at a summit in Warsaw in July 2016 decided to deploy four multinational battalions to Poland and three Baltic states amid fears of potential Russian aggression following Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
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Source: IAR/PAP, Polish Radio