Kyiv Receives Status of Three Seas Initiative Participating Partner

Ukraine has received the status of a participating partner in the Three Seas Initiative, which unites 12 EU Member States. Other countries seeking to join the EU can obtain the same partnership.

“We decided to create a special, new type of partnership with the Three Seas Initiative – in addition to the strategic partnership – a partnership through participation. This is a new type of partnership, which is designed not only for Ukraine. We gave it to Ukraine today, but we assume that the same partnership can be shared by those states that are located in Central Europe and are not members of the European Union but seek to join it,” President of Poland Andrzej Duda said at the Three Seas Summit in Riga.

According to him, all the countries of the Three Seas support granting Ukraine official EU candidate status. The President of Poland also expressed hope that the European Council will make a corresponding decision at its meeting at the end of the week.

The day before, speaking at the summit via video link, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine should become a member of the Three Seas Initiative. The Head of State suggested strengthening the interpretation of cooperation within the framework of the Three Seas, pointing out the importance of logistics. He also voiced proposals for cooperation in security, energy, logistics, and infrastructure areas.

As a reminder, the Three Seas Initiative was established in 2016 as a platform for economic cooperation between the Central European countries of the European Union. It unites 12 states located along the north-south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea.

Bohdan Marusyak