Polish President Andrzej Duda at the press conference following the Three Seas Initiative summit in Riga said that all Three Seas partners support granting Ukraine the status of a candidate for the European Union. “We are deeply convinced that it will receive this status. We have decided to create a special, new type of partnership within the Three Seas Initiative, apart from the strategic partnership, a participatory partnership and we have proposed it to Ukraine. This new type of partnership is not only reserved for Ukraine – it is a proposal for other countries of Central Europe, which are not members of the European Union, but aspire to it”, said Duda.

The main issues of the meeting in Riga were the prospect of stopping the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the contribution of the Three Seas countries in preventing the food crisis.

The leaders of the Three Seas countries also talked about the development of infrastructure, strengthening ties in energy security, as well as cooperation within NATO.

“Further strengthening of infrastructure connections between the countries of the region, including gas and electricity connections, are priority actions that we must implement”, said President Andrzej Duda during the summit.

He emphasized that it is about creating economic and communication ties, and above all about building security spheres in our part of Europe.

The cooperation of the Three Seas countries began on the initiative of President Andrzej Duda and the then President of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović.

The project brings together 12 countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. The idea of the project is to stimulate the economic development of Central and Eastern European countries and to create a stable and coherent partnership of countries from the area between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea.

Adrian Andrzejewski