Speaking at the NATO Open Door Conference in Helsinki, NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoan? welcomed Ukraine’s readiness to join NATO and said that “NATO’s door remains open” and “no violence or intimidation can stop that”. The embassies of Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia had organised the event, in collaboration with the Finnish Institute for International Affairs and the Atlantic Council of Finland, to mark the twentieth anniversary of their countries’ accession to NATO.