Regional Defence and Security Summit

Europe is rearming at a pace not seen since the early Cold War. EU defence spending has risen 62.8% from 2020, exceeding the 2% NATO guideline. Defence investment alone is projected to reach €130 billion this year. The SAFE instrument is disbursing €150 billion, NATO DIANA doubling its 2026 cohort and European defence startups securing a record $8.7 billion in 2025. 

On the other hand, Russia's war in Ukraine continues to define the eastern flank, while the US-Israel strikes on Iran in February 2026 brought US military assets to Sofia, put Cyprus under direct threat, and confirmed that the security environment facing this corridor is no longer single-front.

The role of NATO's Eastern Flank

The EU's Defence Readiness Roadmap 2030 places the Eastern Flank among its most important flagship projects and the largest recipients of SAFE funding. 

NATO's eastern flank runs as a single strategic arc from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and into the eastern Mediterranean — one perimeter, one adversary, one logic. The Baltic states have spent a decade establishing the defence innovation infrastructure, procurement culture, and institutional relationships that the Balkans and Black Sea corridor is now developing at speed.

The eastern flank is also the stress test of European defence ambition as it concentrates the threat, the funding, and the industrial opportunity in the same geography.

TOPICS

• The New Geopolitical Order: Power Shifts, the Transatlantic Relationship, and Where Europe Stands
• Europe's Defence Architecture: New Rules, New Money, New Competition
• What SAFE, EDIP, and the Procurement Revolution Mean for Industry
• NATO's Eastern Flank in 2026: Active Operations, Industrial Build-Out, and the Capability Gaps That Urgently Need Filling
• Europe's Defence Industrial Renaissance: What the Primes Are Building, Where They Are Investing, and What It Means for the Corridor’s landscape and capacity 
• Bulgaria at the Crossroads: How to Modernise Its Defence Industry, Build Innovation Ecosystem, and Rewrite the Policy Framework for a New Security Era
• Financing European Defence: How SAFE Loans, EIB Lending, Venture Capital, and the New EU Instruments Are Creating the Largest Defence Investment Cycle in a Generation and How to Access It
• Startups, Deep Tech, and Dual-Use Innovation: Deal Flow, Pitches, and How the Corridor's Best Companies Get from Prototype to Procurement
• Security Without Borders: Protecting Critical Infrastructure, Airports, Energy Networks, and Digital Systems Against Hybrid Attacks, Drone Threats, and Cyber Warfare:  Who Is Responsible and What Works
• The Corridor Speaks: Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, and Turkey on Joint Procurement, Shared Threats, and the Regional Agenda

AUDIENCE

500+ participants representing

• Defence Ministers and Senior Policymakers 
• Prime Contractors and Defence Industry 
• Startups and Innovators 
• Venture Capital and Financing Institutions 
• Accelerators and Innovation Hubs 
• Defence and Dual-Use Associations 
• Research and Think Tanks 
• Legal and Compliance Advisors 
• Component and Technology Suppliers