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Three Seas Initiative summit kicks off in Bucharest, at Cotroceni Palace
President Klaus Iohannis is hosting, on Wednesday, at the Bucharest-based Cotroceni Palace, the 8th edition of the Summit of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI).
On the sidelines of the 3SI summit, the 5th edition of the Initiative's Business Forum will take place on Thursday at the Parliament Palace.
Political sources stated that at the Bucharest summit, important decisions will be passed regarding the consolidation and diversification of the financial instruments of the Initiative and regarding the future directions of action for the development of cross-border interconnections in the field of transport infrastructure, energy and digitization.
According to political sources, among the objectives and results targeted at the summit are: the development of the Business Forum, support for the creation of an Initiative Innovation Fund, support for the creation of a new Investment Fund, focused on interconnection projects, with an emphasis on energy and digital, the stimulation of investments drawing and developing public-private partnerships, updating the list of strategic priority projects, expanding the Initiative, including by redefining the 3SI relationship with its neighbourhood, in the context of the war of aggression against Ukraine - Greece becoming the 13th participating state, while Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova - associated states. Among the objectives is the inclusion for the first time, at Romania's initiative, of the topic of cyber security on the summit agenda, as well as in the joint declaration that will be adopted, as well as catalyzing the interest of major international actors, including international financial institutions, for the Initiative's strategic projects.
Romania is the first of the states participating in the Three Seas Initiative to host a summit of the Initiative for the second time, after the one hosted by president Iohannis in Bucharest, in September 2018. The Investment Fund established after the summit hosted by Romania in 2018 has already invested in five projects from several countries, including Romania, their cumulative value reaching 6 billion euros. The Romanian projects are: Cargounit - investment platform in the transport sector/acquisition of locomotives, etc.; Energy - investment platform in the energy sector/investments in wind parks, hydropower plants, photovoltaic parks; R. Power Renewables - solar energy production.
The 12 participating states will be present at the summit: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, nine of which will be represented at the level of head of state, one at the level of prime minister, one at the level of deputy prime minister and one at the level of head of the Parliament. At the same time, there will be a series of special guests, including Greece (which will become the 13th 3SI participating state at the summit), the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine (which will become participating states associated with 3SI), which will be represented by the heads of state (Ukraine, in online format).
Also, the strategic partners of the Initiative - the USA, the European Commission, Germany - will be represented at the summit. From the US side, the special representative of the US president for climate and the assistant secretary of state for energy, John Kerry, will participate.
The president of the EBRD, the vice-president of the EIB and representatives of the OECD will also be present at the summit. Messages will be delivered by the Japanese prime minister, the general director of the IMF and the general director for operations of the World Bank.
According to the programme, a plenary session will take place at the summit, a joint declaration will be adopted and a press conference will be organized in which the presidents of Romania, Poland and Lithuania - the host of the 2024 summit - and the Croatian prime minister will participate. Also, the head of the Romanian state will offer a dinner to the heads of delegations.
On the sidelines of the meeting, president Klaus Iohannis will have a series of bilateral consultations with heads of participating delegations.
The Three Seas Initiative was conceived as a flexible and informal political platform, at the presidential level, comprising the 12 EU member states located between the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia , Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.