Preparations for the NATO summit: Bucharest Nine group meets in Riga

High-ranking representatives from several Eastern European NATO countries will convene in Latvia's capital, Riga, on Tuesday. The occasion is the upcoming consultation of the so-called Bucharest Nine group, which will also be attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. The group consists of Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, all nations that lie along NATO's eastern flank. The group was formed in 2014 at the initiative of Poland and Romania following Russia's annexation of Crimea. The next regular NATO summit is scheduled to take place from July 9 to 11 in Washington. Key topics of the assembly will be further support for Ukraine and the celebrations for the 75th anniversary of the transatlantic defense alliance. NATO was founded in 1949 in the U.S. capital by the United States, France, the United Kingdom, and nine other western nations. The admission dates of the members are also noteworthy: Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia joined NATO on March 29, 2004, while the Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary joined five years earlier, on March 12, 1999. In light of the Russian war of aggression, the nine countries in Central and Eastern Europe are concerned about their security, with the exception of Hungary, being among the most resolute supporters of Ukraine.