President Iohannis to attend Summit for Democracy; phone call with Biden, in B9 format

President Klaus Iohannis participates on Thursday in the Summit for Democracy, organized by the President of the United States of America, Joseph R. Biden, in videoconference format, according to the Presidential Administration, agerpres reports.

Also, the head of state will have, on Thursday evening, a telephone conversation with the President of the USA, in Bucharest 9 (B9) format.

On Wednesday, the White House announced that US President Joe Biden would hold consultations on Thursday with nine Eastern European NATO members, including Romania, regarding with summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and fears of an invasion of Ukraine.

Joe Biden will have a telephone conversation with the leaders of the Bucharest Nine Group, made up of NATO allies on the eastern flank, to summarize the meeting with President Putin, to listen to their views on the current security situation and to stress the United States' commitment to transatlantic security, a release informs.

The Bucharest Nine (B9) Group includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary.

This call will come after a scheduled telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is seeking help from the United States to avoid what he sees as threats of Russian invasion. Diplomatic tensions and pressures are mounting as Washington and its allies accuse Moscow of deploying tens of thousands of troops to the Ukrainian border to attack the country. Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin discussed the burning issue in their two-hour virtual summit on Tuesday, according to AFP.

Excluding for now any military intervention in the event of an invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden warned on Wednesday that a Russian attack in Ukraine would lead to a strengthening of the US military presence in the territories of the members of the North Atlantic Alliance in Eastern Europe.

For his part, the Kremlin leader defended Russia's right to "protect its security," believing that letting NATO approach its borders without reacting would be "criminal."

During the summit with the Washington administration leader, Vladimir Putin, demanded especially "certain legal guarantees" to prevent Ukraine from joining NATO.