In his opening remarks at the Bucharest Nine (B9) meeting, Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki said that when the format was first established, “some believed that we were sounding the alarm too loudly,” The Guardian reports.
“We warned that Russia’s revisionism was not temporary; we warned that imperial thinking had returned to Europe, and that deterrence could not exist only on paper. Today, nobody can say they were not warned.”
He said Russia’s continued aggression against Ukraine “is not an isolated conflict,” but rather “a direct challenge to the entire Euro-Atlantic security order.”
“Our region is no longer NATO’s periphery; it is NATO’s strategic centre of gravity.”
Nawrocki said the Ankara summit would need to send a clear message that “NATO is united, NATO is ready, and NATO will defend every inch of allied territory.”
“The Ankara summit must therefore strengthen NATO’s forward defence posture and demonstrate that the alliance possesses both the political will and the military capabilities necessary to deter aggression on every part of allied territory.”
He ended with strong remarks in support of Ukraine, saying: “There should be no doubt as to who launched this brutal war. We must also remain fully aware of the role played by Belarus, which continues to support Russia’s war effort and enables hostile hybrid activities to be launched from its territory against NATO allies and partners.
“We must collectively make sure that if a peace is to be reached just east of our borders, it has to be just.
“The nations represented in this room understand, perhaps better than anyone, the cost of complacency. We know what happens when aggression is underestimated and when democratic nations hesitate.”
By Vafa Guliyeva
