The presidents of nine countries from NATO’s Eastern flank, among them the Bulgarian head of state Rumen Radev, expressed serious security concerns over the conflict in Ukraine.  

“We face the most difficult security challenges in a generation,” reads the final declaration of the meeting. “We are also gravely concerned by Russia’s material breach of the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty) Treaty and failure to return to full and verifiable compliance, which led to the suspension of the Treaty and the United States’ notification of withdrawal,” the declaration reads.

Together with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the participants discussed the growing threats in the sphere of cybersecurity and the need to fight fake news.

After the forum President Rumen Radev commented that, regrettably, the informal B9 initiative had strayed away from its original idea, and was even posing risks to the interests of the nine member countries, going beyond the approaches adopted by all 29 allies.