The “Bucharest Nine” are committed to increasing NATO’s military presence in their territories as a deterrent against Moscow, as they stated in their declaration after the meeting.

“Russia is the most important and immediate security threat” of the allies, they noted. They also expressed the their support in Ukraine. “Ukraine is exercising its legitimate right to self-defense against Russian aggression to regain full control of its territory. We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to this end, as long as necessary,” the text reads.

Hungary also signed the declaration, which often appears to disagree with the European Union’s sanctions on Russia and, along with Turkey, are the only NATO members that have yet to approve the membership requests of Sweden and Finland. Ahead of today’s meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called for a ceasefire and peace talks to avoid further escalation and generalization of the conflict – a stance however at odds with calls from neighboring countries for a clear victory of Ukraine in the war.

After the session is over, the president of Poland Andrzej Duda he told private television channel TVN24 that NATO allies will have to decide whether to send fighter jets to Ukraine and, if such a decision is made, his country may initially supply Kiev with the MiG planes it still has in its fleet.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Naušeda said that during the meeting he proposed to Biden to deploy HIMARS systems, attack helicopters and other airspace surveillance systems in the Baltic countries.