Senate hosts first Parliamentary Summit of Bucharest Format (B9) April 17-19

Romanian Senate on Tuesday will open for three days, April 17-19, the first Parliamentary Summit of the Bucharest Format (B9).

The event was co-organized by the Romanian Senate Speaker, Calin Popescu-Tariceanu, together with the Marshal of the Senate of the Polish Republic, Stanislaw Karczewski.

"Considering the current international developments, the B9 Parliamentary Summit represents an important element in terms of parliamentary diplomacy approaches at multilateral level. The B9 parliamentary pillar aims at facilitating convergent positions, by strengthening the role played by national parliaments in the security and defence fields. The organization of the B9 Parliamentary Summit sends a unitary and coherent message concerning the consolidation of the Eastern Flank of NATO, ahead of the NATO Summit that will take place in Brussels in July 2018," shows a release remitted to AGERPRES.

The agenda for this year includes, among others, such aspects related to the future presence of NATO, NATO's defence and deterrence posture, common responsibilities, combating terrorism, military mobility, perceptions regarding the threats facing the participant countries, legislative consolidation in the defence field etc.

The Summit will also enjoy the presence of the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, co-initiator of the Bucharest Format (B9).

The inaugural session will take place on Wednesday, at the Constantin Stere hall. Invited to hold speeches are the co-initiators of the parliamentary pillar of the Bucharest Format (B9) and guests of honour, with two working session to follow after that.

There will be present the parliamentary delegations of member states of the Bucharest Format: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Romania and Hungary, as well as guests of honour - Gerard Larcher, the President of the Senate of the French Republic, Paolo Alli, the President of NATO's Parliamentary Assembly, David Hobbs, Secretary General of AP NATO, General Curtis Scaparrotti, SACEUR NATO, General Nicolae Ciuca, head of the the General Staff of the Romanian Army.

There will also participate Matti Saarelainen, head of the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, and Tomas Valasek, head of Carnegie Europe, who were invited to make presentations at the debates session. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Catalin Alexandru; EN - editor: Cristina Zaharia)