Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu is in Łódź, Poland for a meeting of the foreign ministers of Central and Eastern European States (B9), with the agenda covering preparations for the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, the summit in Vilnius in July, and European security, including relations between the Alliance and Russia.
At today’s meeting, the foreign ministers of Central and Eastern Europe welcomed Finland into NATO. “Finland’s NATO accession reinforces the region’s security and provides an opportunity for enhanced cooperation,” Reinsalu said, adding he hoped that Hungary and Türkiye would soon approve Sweden’s accession application.
The ministers discussed continued and comprehensive assistance to Ukraine, including giving Ukraine a clear roadmap for joining NATO. “European security must have no grey areas and for a sustainable peace in Europe, Ukraine must win,” Reinsalu said. He emphasised that Ukraine must be given a clear and straightforward roadmap to NATO at the summit of the Alliance in Vilnius.
Ahead of the meeting in Brussels on 4 and 5 April, the foreign ministers discussed progress with the implementation of the defence and deterrence decisions adopted at the Madrid summit last summer, including certifying regional defence plans. “NATO’s Strategic Compass adopted in Madrid clearly states that NATO’s greatest security threat is Russia, with which it signed a Founding Act for advancing dialogue and European security in 1997. However, since February last year, Russia has been ignoring all principles of international law and is waging an inhumane war at the heart of Europe,” Reinsalu said. “It is time to annul the founding act on relations between NATO and Russia because cooperation with Putin’s Russia that is waging a war of aggression in Ukraine is out of the question.”
Reinsalu said it was also important to agree on a cooperation plan between NATO and the European Union that would reflect the NATO-EU Joint Declaration adopted in January.
