Explained: Who are the Bucharest Nine, countries on NATO’s eastern flank?

What is the News?

Bucharest Nine(B9) rejected the Russian claim about the eastward “expansion” of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

What is Bucharest Nine(B9)?

About: It is a group of nine NATO countries in Eastern Europe that became part of the US-led military alliance after the end of the Cold War.

Founded in: 2015.

It takes its name from Bucharest, the capital of Romania. This group is also regarded as the “voice of the Eastern Flank” in the NATO alliance.

The group was created on the initiative of Klaus Iohannis who has been President of Romania and Andrzej Duda who became President of Poland in 2015, at the High-Level Meeting of the States from Central and Eastern Europe in Bucharest.

Members of B9: Romania and Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

All members of the B9 are part of the European Union (EU) and NATO.

What is the relationship between B9 Countries and Russia?

All B9 countries were once closely associated with the now-dissolved Soviet Union, but later chose the path of democracy.

The B9 countries have been critical of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine since 2014 when the war in the Donbas started and Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Source: This post is based on the article “Explained: Who are the Bucharest Nine, countries on NATO’s eastern flank?” published in Indian Express on 27th March 2022.