Bucharest 9 – The Romanian Minister of Defense, Angel Tîlvăr, co-chairs, today, together with his Polish counterpart, Mariusz Blaszczak, a new meeting of the Defense Ministers in the Bucharest 9 Format, held in Warsaw, Poland. According to a press release, this is an opportunity to harmonize the positions of the B9 states on the eastern flank of the Alliance in order to promote and reflect common security interests on the allied agenda, including in run up to the NATO Summit in Vilnius, this summer. Also, both aspects regarding the current security challenges triggered by the latest developments of the war in Ukraine and the regional and Euro-Atlantic implications will be addressed, as well as the need to keep supporting the most vulnerable partners in the region, subject to hybrid threats from Russia, namely the Republic of Moldova, Georgia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Russia – Moscow is pursuing a hostile policy towards the Republic of Moldova – said the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the pro-Western Government in Chisinau, Nicu Popescu, commenting on the ban on entering Russia for a number of Moldovan officials. „For many years, Russia has resorted to a hostile policy towards the Republic of Moldova. It has supported separatism, imposed an embargo, and there are troops of the Russian army on the territory of our republic. The Russian Federation regards the Republic of Moldova as an enemy”, Popescu said. Previously, the first secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Moldova in Moscow, Valeriu Manea, was declared persona non grata in Russia, as a measure of retaliation against a decision adopted by Chisinau against a Russian diplomat who had behaved inappropriately towards the border police.
