Next week, between November 28 and 30, Bucharest will serve as the capital of European and Euro-Atlantic diplomacy.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs from NATO member states will take place in Bucharest. The event will be hosted, on behalf of Romania, by Minister Bogdan Aurescu, reports Agerpres.
Also, on Monday and Tuesday, the Munich Leaders Meeting (MLM) will take place in the capital. The ministry of Foreign Affairs is co-organizer of this prestigious event, which is the restricted format of the Munich Security Conference (Munich Security Conference – MSC).
„We will have an extremely busy and dynamic political-diplomatic and security agenda next week, starting with the Munich Leaders’ Meeting, on November 28-29, and continuing with the Meeting of Foreign Ministers from NATO member states, on November 29-30. Bucharest will thus be, for three days, the capital of European, Euro-Atlantic diplomacy and beyond these regions. These two events of high visibility for our country and with international participation of the highest level, organized for the first time in Romania, take place in a critical moment for regional and Euro-Atlantic security, marked by the war started by Russia in Ukraine and its multidimensional impact, reconfirming the active profile of our country at the international level, especially in terms of foreign policy and security, but also the strategic importance of the Black Sea”, the head of Romanian diplomacy, Bogdan Aurescu stated in a press release from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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.
It is also the first high-level NATO meeting held in a state on the Eastern Flank, in the first line of defense of the Alliance since the start of Russia’s brutal aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
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. The meeting will provide an opportunity for a first applied analysis of the stage of implementation of the decisions made in Madrid and for the preparation of the future NATO Summit in Vilnius, from 2023, the source says.
Along with the heads of diplomacy of the thirty member states, the NATO Secretary General 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 (present 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 meeting will begin on Tuesday afternoon, when two working sessions will take place, including a session with the participation of the minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, as a partner of the Alliance. The first day of the meeting will provide for 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.
The Ministerial will continue on Wednesday with two more working sessions in an allied format, in which the two guests – the foreign ministers of Finland and Sweden – will participate, and in the last session the partners of the Alliance – the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The discussions of the foreign ministers of NATO member states, together with their counterparts from the partner and guest states, will consider the measures to strengthen defense and deterrence on the Eastern Flank in the context of the illegal war of aggression waged by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, the increase of allied support for Ukraine , combating the threats from the hybrid registry, discussing ways to manage the long-term challenges generated by China’s actions, strengthening the resilience of the Euro-Atlantic community, including in the energy field. Continued support for increasing the resilience of the Republic of Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina will also be addressed. At the same time, the meeting will provide for the opportunity for the strategic evaluation of the global challenges to the security of the Alliance, which also stem from the dependence on states that do not share the same values as the allies, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
„Our country plays a particularly active role at the regional, European and Euro-Atlantic level, especially in the context of the illegal war waged by Russia against Ukraine, which calls for concrete measures to increase the resilience of the states in the vicinity of the Alliance, in line with the decisions of the NATO Summit in Madrid, but also for the reduction of all dependencies. Our role is as pragmatic and concrete as possible – from the unconditional support given to the more than 2.9 million refugees from Ukraine who crossed our borders to the extensive involvement in managing the effects of this crisis, including the issue of the transit of Ukrainian grain and agricultural products to third destinations – over 8.4 million tonnes so far. The Ministerial in Bucharest is an additional opportunity for promoting Romania’s priorities at the NATO level and the strategic importance of the Black Sea, as we have done it up to now, but also for the fastest possible implementation of all decisions regarding strengthening NATO’s Eastern Flank, including in Romania”, the head of Romanian diplomacy was quoted in the press release.
The Munich Leaders Meeting (MLM), co-organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Munich Security Conference, will bring together in Bucharest, on November 28 and 29, over 75 high-level participants from over 25 states, current and former officials, renowned experts and analysts, opinion leaders, to address topics of major interest on the regional, European and Euro-Atlantic agenda.
MLM’s interactive debates take place behind closed doors, based on Chatham House rules, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs states.
The MLM Bucharest meeting is part of the annual programme of the prestigious Munich Security Conference. It is organized in preparation for the February 2023 Conference, one year after the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The previous MLM meeting was held in Washington in May.
It is for the first time in the history of this format that the event takes place in South-Eastern Europe, this success of Romania’s political-diplomatic efforts also comes as a recognition of the importance of our country in the regional, European and Euro-Atlantic level, the MAE underlines.
The agenda of the meeting in Bucharest will include topics relevant to international security, with emphasis on developments in the Eastern region, the Black Sea region and the Western Balkans. The European security architecture, the implementation of NATO’s new Strategic Concept, hybrid threats, food security, the energy crisis will also be among the topics to be covered. The event in Bucharest will have an impact beyond the moment of its implementation, the results will contribute to the foundation of the debates that will take place next year at the Security Conference in Munich, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs concludes.
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