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On October 4, foreign ministers of Vilnius 10 group - from the Baltic countries, Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia - met in Bled, Slovenia, to discuss consequences of terrorist attacks against the US towards international security and exchange views about the perspectives of NATO development as well as to share experience obtained on preparing the third Membership Action Plan (MAP). Lithuanian Foreign Minister Antanas Valionis noted in his speech that this meeting arranged between NATO candidate countries has confirmed the importance of cooperation and unity in strengthening international security. According to the Lithuanian foreign minister, both NATO and EU have to use the potential of their allies - countries seeking NATO membership - in their fight against terrorism. As minister Valionis noticed, the new security situation stimulates the democratic world to unite its efforts in seeking a common goal. The minister congratulated the fact that not only NATO members and candidates but also other countries understand the importance of this issue. The meeting in Bled, Slovenia, is the 4th meeting of the ministers of foreign affairs of Vilnius group. The participants of the initiative which started in spring 2000 in Vilnius was called "Vilnius group" or V9. The foreign ministers met in Vilnius and signed the common statement encouraging further NATO enlargement. In May 2001 in Bratislava the forum of V9 Prime ministers was held. As Croatia has expressed the official wish to join the group, V9 was enlarged by one more member and became the group of 10 (V10).