Turner noted that while NATO’s position on Russia’s actions towards Ukraine and Georgia remains unchanged, this position does not aim to provoke Russia, but is rather ‘an adequate description of reality’.

Turner also said that relations between NATO and Russia deteriorated long before the last crisis, and that Moscow and NATO have not had direct dialogue in 18 months.

"The closure of the Russian mission in NATO and the closure of the alliance’s offices in Moscow do not mean that dialogue is finished. We [NATO] are still open to dialogue”, said Turner.

The Bucharest Nine meeting was also attended by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Karen Donfried.

"It was very useful to hear from the ministers about their experience working with Russia. The main point of today’s talks for me was to see the minister’s strong support for NATO’s open door policy, and to hear now that NATO can deepen its cooperation with Ukraine and Georgia”, Donfried said.

The Bucharest Nine (B9) was established in 2015 following the annexation of Crimea by Russia. The members of B9 are Poland, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Bulgaria.