On Friday, 13th November, State Secretary for Defence Policy, Planning and International Relations, Simona Cojocaru, participated in the fifth edition of Bucharest Security Conference, organized by the National School for Political and Administrative Studies.

In her allocution within the panel entitled B9 countries in a world of westlessness? How to boost collective defence from within, the state secretary emphasized the importance of developing regional cooperation initiatives and formats around a nucleus of European identity common values; the measure is necessary in this period, when Europe faces unprecedented challenges with regard to restating the trans-Atlantic relation, the exit of the Great Britain from the European Union and political populism.

In this context, the state secretary reiterated the importance of the B9 format and reminded that, since its establishment in 2015, this has proved to be a successful platform for the promotion of common defence and deterrence objectives within NATO. At the same time, the Romanian official presented the fields in which the initiative can contribute to the consolidation of security by means of an overall and coherent approach of the Eastern Flank of the Alliance.

The Press Office