A two-day summit is taking place in Romania bringing together 12 European Union members situated between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, aiming to boost ties amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The summit saw Greece invited as a full member and Ukraine and Moldova invited as associate members.
The Three Seas Initiative which began Wednesday aims to improve transportation, energy, and digital interconnectivity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed the meeting via video link on Wednesday and said that Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine’s Danube ports are “at the border of our three seas,” referring to a drone attack last weekend.
Romania’s Defense Minister, Angel Tilvar confirmed that debris from the drone have been found on Romanian territory, a NATO member. Romanian officials initially denied that fragments had landed in Romania despite Ukrainian claims to the contrary.
“The success of this summit is the accession of Greece to the Three Seas Initiative. Greece has been admitted as a full-fledged European Union member to the Three Seas Initiative, but the success is also the accession of Moldova and Ukraine as associated partners – two countries on the path to EU membership,” said Polish President Andrezj Duda.
The Three Seas Initiative which was launched in 2016, two years after Russia annexed Crimea includes Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Austria, Estonia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Latvia and Lithuania.
The initiative states on its website that it “was born out of a shared interest in developing transport, energy and digital infrastructure connections on the EU’s north-south axis.”
The U.S. government’s climate envoy, John Kerry, is also attending the initiative
