Bucharest Nine Bucharest Format | |
|---|---|
 Members of the Bucharest Nine | |
| Membership | |
| Establishment | 4 November 2015 |
TheBucharest Nine or theBucharest Format (B9 orB-9;Romanian:Formatul București,Polish:Bukaresztańska Dziewiątka), orNATO's Eastern Flank[1] is an organization founded on 4 November 2015 inBucharest,Romania, at the initiative of thePresident of RomaniaKlaus Iohannis and thePresident of PolandAndrzej Duda during a bilateral meeting between them.[2] Its members areBulgaria, theCzech Republic,Estonia,Hungary,Latvia,Lithuania,Poland,Romania andSlovakia. Its appearance was mainly a result of a perceived aggressive attitude fromRussia following theannexation of Crimea fromUkraine and its posteriorintervention in eastern Ukraine both in 2014. All members of the B9 were either part of the formerSoviet Union (USSR) or members of the defunct Soviet-ledWarsaw Pact.[3][4] All members are alsomembers of NATO.
Since its foundation on 4 November 2015, the Bucharest Nine countries have held several meetings at various levels. A tabular list follows the historical development.[3]
In June 2018, prior to the B9 meeting that year,President of PolandAndrzej Duda spoke out in favour ofUkrainian andGeorgianNATO membership ambitions.[1]
On 10 May 2021, during a B9video conferencesummit which thePresident of the United StatesJoe Biden joined,President of RomaniaKlaus Iohannis (one of the two hosts of the summit, the other being Duda) called for "stronger allied military presence [...] on the bloc's eastern flank" following themobilization of Russian troops near theRussian border with Ukraine which had happened some time before.[5]
On 25 February 2022, the B9 group with the addition ofUrsula von der Leyen,President of the European Commission, gathered in light of the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[6]
The 10 June 2022 B9 summit was attended virtually by theSecretary General of NATO,Jens Stoltenberg,[7] as well as the presidents of theCzech Republic andSlovakia.[8] On it, Duda declared "We want theenhanced forward presence that we have today on NATO's eastern flank to be extended. We want the existing battalion groups to be transformed into brigade groups." Duda added that a brigade group has 3,000 troops, which would mean a "significant and visible strengthening",[9] while Iohannis said that "NATO must be capable to defend every inch of its territory".[10] Iohannis added that the B9 summit agreed in favour of admittingFinland andSweden into NATO[10] and told participants of the meeting that "security risks to Romania and theBlack Sea region are increasing", and in the press release it was written that the meeting was in order to prepare for the most important decisions of NATO's2022 Madrid summit.[8] Furthermore, thePresident of EstoniaAlar Karis stated during the meeting that all nine members agree thatRussia is a threat to NATO.[11]
On 11 October 2022, the B9 presidents, along with the presidents ofNorth Macedonia andMontenegro, condemned and demanded the end ofthat month's series of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets and described them as war crimes to be punished under international law.[12]
At a summit on 22 February 2023, the heads of state of the Bucharest Nine countries, as well as Biden and Stoltenberg, signed a declaration which issued a condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for an enhanced military presence of NATO on the eastern flank of the alliance.[13]
On 2 June 2025, leaders of the Bucharest Nine andNordic countries pledged to work toward gradually increasing defence spending to at least 5% of their gross domestic product in response to mounting security threats, particularly from Russia. The commitment was made in a joint statement issued following a summit inVilnius, co-chaired by Lithuanian PresidentGitanas Nausėda, Polish PresidentAndrzej Duda, and Romanian PresidentNicușor Dan. The international meeting was also attended by NATO Secretary GeneralMark Rutte and Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky.[14]
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| Year | Date | Country | City | Host leader | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 4 November |  Romania | Bucharest | Klaus Iohannis | [2] |
| 2018 | 8 June |  Poland | Warsaw | Andrzej Duda | [15] |
| 2019 | 28 February |  Slovakia | Košice | Andrej Kiska | [16] |
| 2021 | 10 May | Romania | Bucharest | Klaus Iohannis andAndrzej Duda | [17] |
| 2022 | 25 February | Poland | Warsaw | Andrzej Duda | [18] |
| 2022 | 10 June | Romania | Bucharest | Klaus Iohannis andAndrzej Duda | [19] |
| 2023 | 22 February | Poland | Warsaw | Andrzej Duda,Klaus Iohannis andZuzana Čaputová | [20] |
| 2023 | 6 June | Slovakia | Bratislava | Zuzana Čaputová,Andrzej Duda andKlaus Iohannis | [21] |
| 2024 | 11 June |  Latvia | Riga | Edgars Rinkēvičs | [22] |
| 2025 | 2 June |  Lithuania | Vilnius | Gitanas Nausėda,Nicușor Dan andAndrzej Duda | [23] |
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| Year | Date | Country | City | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 8 November | Romania | Bucharest | [24] |
| 2017 | 9 October | Poland | Warsaw | [25] |
| 2020 | 10 March | Lithuania | Vilnius | [26] |
| 2021 | 27 October |  Estonia | Tallinn | [27] |
| 2022 | 31 March | Slovakia | Bratislava | [28] |
| 2023 | 31 March | Poland | Łódź | [29] |
| 2024 | 26 May |  Belgium | Brussels | [30] |
| Year | Date | Country | City | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 12–14 March | Romania | Bucharest | [31] |
| 2019 | 4 April | Poland | Warsaw | [32] |
| 2021 | 25 November | Romania | Bucharest | [33] |
| 2022 | 6 June | Videoconference | [34] | |
| 2023 | 26 April | Poland | Warsaw | [35] |
| 2024 | 19 September | Romania | Bucharest | [36] |
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