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UPSC THE BUCHAREST NINE - English

THE BUCHAREST NINE

Why in News?

Recently, the Bucharest Nine (B 9) rejected the Russian claim about the eastward “expansion” of North-Atlantic Treaty Alliance organisation (NATO).

Bucharest Nine

• The B 9 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.
• The B 9 or Bucharest Format, often abbreviated as the B9, was founded on November 4, 2015.
• It takes its name from Bucharest, the capital of Romania.
• B9, it 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 August 2015, at the High-Level Meeting of the States from Central and Eastern Europe in Bucharest.
• The members of B9 are Romania and Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the three Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
• B9 offers a platform for deepening the dialogue and consultation among the participant allied states across the members of NATO.
• All nine countries were once closely associated with the now dissolved Soviet Union, but later chose the path of democracy.
• All members of the B9 are part of the European Union (EU) and NATO.
• 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.

Three Seas Initiative

• The 3SI is a regional effort in Europe to expand cross-border energy, transportation, and digital infrastructure and boost economic development in the area between the Adriatic Sea, Baltic Sea, and Black Sea.
• Twelve countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia), all of which are members of the EU, participate in the 3SI.

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