The meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs from the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance begins on Tuesday, in Bucharest, being the first high-level event of NATO in a state on the Eastern Flank, after the armed aggression unleashed by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, according to Agerpres.

The event is hosted, on behalf of Romania, by Minister Bogdan Aurescu.

The meeting of foreign ministers from NATO member states is the first event of this type organized in Romania since our country’s accession to the Alliance in 2004, and the second formal allied meeting after the Bucharest Summit in 2008.

At the same time, it is the first high-level NATO meeting after the Madrid Summit, from the end of June 2022, and, in this sense, it will mark an essential stage in the operationalization of the Alliance’s new Strategic Concept.

Along with the heads of diplomacy of the thirty member states, the Secretary General of NATO and the other high political and military officials of the Alliance, the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden will participate in the Bucharest Meeting, as states invited to join the organization.

The foreign affairs ministers from the Republic of Moldova (for the first time at such a meeting), Ukraine, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will participate in the sessions open to partners within the meeting.

The first day of the meeting will provide the opportunity to mark, through a public diplomacy event, the 20th anniversary of the Prague Summit in 2002, where Romania, along with six other member states, was invited to join the North- Atlantic Alliance.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, two working sessions will take place on Tuesday, including a session with the participation of the minister of Foreign Affairs of the Government of Ukraine, as a partner of the Alliance.

The ministerial will continue on Wednesday with two more working sessions in an allied format, in which the two guests – the foreign ministers from Finland and Sweden – will participate, and in the last session the partners of the Alliance – the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

On both days, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, will hold a press conference.

As the head of Romanian diplomacy declared in an interview with AGERPRES, released last Saturday, „a joint declaration of the foreign ministers is being prepared”.
„Such a practice is not common to the meetings of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, which proves once again the importance of the meeting in Bucharest,” said Bogdan Aurescu.

Agerpres