A two-day meeting of foreign ministers of NATO members, whose focus will be on strengthening support for Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, begins today in the capital of Romania.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the participants of the meeting in Bucharest will pay the greatest attention to “Russia’s illegal war in Ukraine, which continues to threaten Euro-Atlantic peace and security”.
The ministers of the 30 NATO members will also deal with the issue of Sweden and Finland joining the alliance and the actions of China, which Stoltenberg said on Friday “is increasing its presence from the Arctic to the Western Balkans and is striving to control the important infrastructure of NATO allies”.
The topic of the meeting will also be the strengthening of aid to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova, “partner countries that face Russian pressure in different ways”, said Stoltenberg.
Three meetings
During the two-day meeting, three meetings of the North Atlantic Council, a key NATO body in charge of decision-making, will be held.
In addition to the ministers of NATO members, the heads of diplomacy of Sweden and Finland, countries whose accession to the alliance is expected soon, will also participate in all three meetings. All NATO members signed the protocol on the accession of Sweden and Finland, and only Hungary and Turkey did not ratify it.
After today’s meeting of the North Atlantic Council, an informal working dinner will be held, where the heads of diplomacy of 30 NATO members, Sweden and Finland, will be joined by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba.
Strong support for Ukraine
Two meetings of the NATO North Atlantic Alliance will be held tomorrow. The foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia and Moldova will join the heads of diplomacy of the alliance members, Sweden and Finland, at the second.
READ:Â “Europe is panicking about the war in Ukraine,” Erdogan mentioned Balkans
Before the start of the two-day meeting, Stoltenberg will give a speech today at a forum organized by the Romanian branch of the Aspen Institute and the German Marshall Fund of the USA with the support of NATO, and then he will have a bilateral meeting with the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken.
At the press conference on the occasion of the meeting in Bucharest, Stoltenberg said on Friday in Brussels that the alliance will continue to provide strong support to Ukraine for its defense against Russian aggression, because in the event of Russia’s victory, the whole world would pay a high price for years.