Washington. November 26. INTERFAX - US Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks confirmed the United States' support for NATO allies on the eastern flank of the alliance and NATO's cooperation with the European Union, the Pentagon said.
"The Deputy Minister confirmed the US commitment to the countries on the eastern flank of NATO and commented on Russia's recent activity around Ukraine, the migration crisis on the border of Belarus and the EU and strategic competition with the People's Republic of China," the Pentagon said in a statement.
Hicks spoke in virtual mode on Thursday at a meeting in Romania of the defense ministers of the Bucharest Nine: Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia. The meeting was initiated jointly by Romania and Poland.
She stressed that "the EU's defense initiatives should remain coordinated, mutually strengthen each other and be compatible with NATO and accessible to NATO," the report says.
The details of the speech are not given.
