Published: 20.06.2022.
Foreign policy Egils Levits
Rumānijas prezidents, Latvijas Valsts prezidents, Polijas prezidents preses konferencē

On 20 June, in closing the 7th Three Seas Initiative (3SI) summit, President of Latvia Egils Levits announced that the leaders of the 3SI member states have agreed to establish a closer partnership with Ukraine as of today, involving Ukraine in 3SI projects.

“An important topic of discussion among the leaders was the war in Ukraine, and the leaders were unanimous that 3SI supports Ukraine in its fight for territorial sovereignty and freedom. Ukraine is a democratic European state, as it is fighting for the common values shared by all of us — by all democratic states. Europe is incomplete without Ukraine, therefore, we believe that Ukraine ought to be granted EU candidate status,” the President of Latvia stated.

President Levits also highly appreciated the announcement from the USA today that it will make a contribution to the 3SI Investment Fund. “This attests to the US being interested in the development of the 3SI region and the strength of our transatlantic ties,” the President of Latvia said.

President Levits also noted that Japan and the UK, both of which participated in today’s summit remotely, have shown great interest in the 3SI.

The President of Latvia presented the official 3SI flag to the president of Romania Klaus Werner Iohannis to symbolically attest to Romania’s readiness to host the 8th Three Seas Initiative summit and the 5th Business Forum in 2023.

20.06.2022. Trīs jūru samits Rīgā

Background information:

The Three Seas Initiative summit was opened on 20 June by President of Latvia Egils Levits. During the summit, the leaders of the 3SI member states held a discussion with the strategic partners of the initiative (USA, Germany and the European Commission), followed by a press conference.

Alongside the summit, the Business Forum is taking place on 20 and 21 June at Hanzas perons, bringing together high level representatives of national and international institutions and the business sector. Participants of the Business Forum include representatives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the European Investment Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the US International Development Finance Corporation, the Bank of Latvia, the Nordic Investment Bank, the 3SI Investment Fund, as well as companies Amber Infrastructure Group, ORLEN, Rolls Royce, Atkins, Google, LMT, MikroTik and Greenergy. The Business Forum was opened on 20 June by Prime Minister Krišjānis Kariņš and Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.

The 3SI summit and the Business Forum is hosted by the Chancery of the President of Latvia in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia.

More information, including live broadcasts of the public events of the summit and Business Forum, is available here: https://3seas.eu/.

The Three Seas Initiative was established in 2016 upon the initiative of the presidents of Poland and Croatia. It consists of 12 European Union member states between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas: Latvia, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. The United States, Germany and the European Commission attend summits as partners of the initiative. So far six summits of the Three Seas Initiative have been held: in Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia and Bulgaria. The 7th summit has just been concluded in Latvia, while the 8th summit will be held in Romania in 2023.