The Tri-Sea Initiative (3SI), a regional cooperation format linking 13 countries of Central Europe, is entering a fresh stage. The 10th jubilee summit in Warsaw in 2025 is not only a symbolic closure of the decade of existence, but above all an chance to examine the achievements to date and future challenges. Faced with the changing political reality, Donald Trump's election as president of the United States, the increasing function of Central Europe and fresh economical challenges, 3SI must prove its effectiveness and adaptability.
Three Seas: Building bridges between north and south EU
The Tri-Sea Initiative is simply a format of global regional cooperation, comprising 13 Central European countries located in the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Sea basins. These include Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary. The 3SI concept was created in 2015 at the initiative of the Presidents of Poland and Croatia, and the first summit, with the participation of 12 presidents, was held a year later in Dubrovnik. Greece joined the Initiative in 2023.
All 3SI associate States are members of the European Union at the same time. The main nonsubjective of the initiative is to strengthen the region's economical cohesion by developing infrastructure in 3 key areas: energy, transport and digitisation. 3SI aims to build cross-border infrastructure to facilitate connections between north and south of the European Union. This format besides functions as a flexible forum for cooperation, based on presidential meetings. Its aim is not only to strengthen links between associate States, but besides to support contacts and projects carried out by businesses and NGOs.
The first summit of the Tri-Sea Initiative was held in 2016 in Dubrovnik. Since then, 3SI summits have been organised annually in different associate States. Each summit shall be held under the auspices of the informal Presidency of the host country, which shall have the right to decide on the agenda and the agenda of the meeting. It should be stressed that, despite the presidential nature of the 3SI, cooperation within it focuses mainly on government activities. It is so crucial to extend cooperation besides at government level[1].
Year 2024: Ukraine's support in the spotlight
In 2024, the summit of the Tri-Sea Initiative in Vilnius, held in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, was dominated by the subject of regional security. Lithuania, as host, highlighted the increasing threat from Russia, calling for the strengthening of the east flank of NATO and the east Partnership[2]. The summit participants included the presidents of Lithuania (Gitanas Nausėda), Bulgaria (Rumen Radew), Czech Republic (Petr Pavel), Estonia (Alar Karis), Latvia (Edgars Rinkēvičs), Poland (Andrzej Duda), Romania (Klaus Iohannis) and Hungary (Tamás Sulyok). Greece was represented by Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis and Croatia by Andrej Plenković. The gathering was besides attended by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenski and Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean [3].
In the declaration adopted at the summit, the Participants unanimously condemned Russian aggression, demanding Moscow's isolation internationally and the usage of frozen assets for reconstruction of Ukraine. In accordance with the adopted text of the declaration: We repeat that Russia must immediately and unconditionally retreat all its armed forces from all territory Ukraine within its internationally recognised limits and we encourage the establishment of a future compensation mechanics for any harm and harm caused. In addition to safety issues, the summit focused on strengthening economical cooperation within 3SI. The summit stressed the importance of infrastructure projects specified as Via Carpatia and Rail Baltica, not only for economical improvement but besides for military mobility in the event of an escalation of the conflict. Energy safety measures were besides continued, pointing to the strategical importance of projects specified as GIPL and Baltic Pipe[4].
The Vilnius Summit besides brought a number of concrete decisions. Japan joined the strategical partners, becoming the 4th entity of this status. A letter of intent was signed on the creation of the second Investment Fund for the Tri-Sea Initiative and the establishment of the 3SI Innovation Fund was announced in cooperation with the European Investment Fund. The list of precedence Projects has been extended to include projects from Moldova and Ukraine. The Business Forum brought together a evidence number of nearly 900 participants, and the registration was closed earlier than expected due to large interest. For the first time in the past of the summits, cooperation with the technological dimension was extended – an authoritative technological conference was held, organized by the investigation Centre of the Trimorese Initiatives at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences and the University of Lodz[5].
The Tri-Sea Initiative from the position of Poland
From the position of Poland, there were besides a number of crucial decisions. Due to the change of government, coordination of the Tri-Morning Initiative took over entirely the Secretariat for the Tri-Morning in the President's Chancellery, and the function of Government Plenipotentiary for the Tri-Morning Initiative, created by the 2018 Bucharest Declaration, disappeared from the Ministry of abroad Affairs. The removal of the Plenipotentiary undermines the coordination of intergovernmental activities, as akin functions be in another countries at different levels, e.g. in Lithuania it is the Ambassador, in Romania the Deputy Minister of abroad Affairs and in Greece the manager of the Department.
It is hard to anticipate harmonious coordination between 2 centres of power in Poland in the context of the April 2025 summit due to the upcoming May 2025 presidential elections. A affirmative signal may be the position of the Polish government presented during 1 of the meetings of the abroad affairs committee. Deputy Minister Władysław Bartoszewski welcomed the Trimorz Initiative, highlighting its increasing importance, especially in the context of changes in regional political dynamics specified as weakening the Visegrad Group[6]. 3SI, initially skeptical, gains value and is appreciated by the current government. The Deputy Minister pointed to the possible of 3SI in terms of economical development, exploiting the possible of the region and strengthening global cooperation. He pointed out that 3SI, due to a larger number of associate States, could be an alternate to the Visegrad Group, allowing for the building of a coalition in the European Council and being an crucial component of the Polish Presidency in the EU. He stressed the usefulness of the 3SI, the common economical interests of the countries of the region and the request to further make cooperation under the Initiative. The Deputy Minister besides added that the 3SI strengthens the northern dimension of the Polish abroad policy towards the Baltic and Nordic, which is peculiarly crucial in the context of Finland's and Sweden's accession to NATO and the increasing function of the Baltic Sea in ensuring the energy safety of Poland and the region.
Today we know that despite the Polish Presidency in the European Union, the government has not decided to organise any crucial gathering in Poland of leaders specified as the European Council summit, the EU-US gathering or the EU-Eastern Partnership. In this context, the Tri-Sea Initiative Summit will be the most crucial global summit in the country throughout 2025.
Involvement in the improvement of the Tri-Sea Initiative during Donald Trump's presidency
The United States has expressed strong support from the outset for the Tri-Sea Initiative, seeing it as a tool for strengthening safety and stableness in Central Europe, as well as countering the influences of Russia and China. The initiative is seen as a strategical tool to advance democracy and free marketplace principles, and to build stronger transatlantic ties.
The election of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States can be seen positively in the context of further American support for this format. Already during Trump's first term, he appeared at the 2017 summit in Warsaw, which was clearly welcomed as a support for the then recuperating format. We already know that Donald Trump will receive an authoritative invitation to this year's summit in Warsaw, which will be given to him after the swearing-in ceremony[7].
However, it is hard to foretell at this point whether he will decide to visit Poland in April. Not all plans for the meetings of Andrzej Duda and Donald Trump have been implemented. Nevertheless, given the long-standing and affirmative relations between the 2 presidents, it can be assumed that specified a gathering will take place even before the end of the word of president of Poland. The global summit in Poland, the key country of Central Europe, with the participation of a number of presidents and prime ministers of another countries seems an perfect opportunity. In addition, the presence of the US president at the jubilee summit of the Trimorese Initiative could symbolically close a decade of cooperation in this format and give it a fresh boost.
However, the support of the United States for the Tri-Sea Initiative goes beyond current political divisions and election matches in the US. Its expression is not only rhetoric, but besides concrete action. The symbolic minute was the unanimous adoption by the Commission of the U.S. home of Representatives on 18 November 2020 of a resolution[8], in which 3SI was recognised as a strategical partnership of 12 countries of Central and east Europe. This paper underlines the function of the Initiative in strengthening independency in key areas of infrastructure: energy, digital and transport. Mark Brzeziński, the outgoing US Ambassador to Poland, besides spoke enthusiastically about 3SI[9]. However, in the context of earlier noisy announcements specified as Mike Pompeo's 2020 declaration of spending a billion dollars on financing the Initiative, the current declaration of contributions of $300 million to the 3SI Investment Fund, made by the US at the Riga Summit in 2022, may seem disappointing. Nevertheless, this format remains a key format of global cooperation in Central Europe for the American administration, companies and experts from here, we can anticipate further strong representation at the summit.
For more information on the Tri-Sea Initiative, see the 3SI investigation Centre website at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences: https://trojmor.isppan.waw.pl/
[1] squad of the Tri-Sea Initiative investigation Centre. Basic Information, https://trojmorze.isppan.waw.pl/initiative-trojmorza/basic-information/ access 27.12.2024.
[2] Kinga Dudzińska, Vilnius summit of the 3 Seas under the slogan of security, https://www.pism.pl/publications/wilenski-peak-trojmorza-pod-passlem-security access 27.12.2024
[3] squad of the investigation Centre for the Tri-Sea Initiative, Vilnius Summit of the Tri-Sea Initiative, https://trojmorze.isppan.waw.pl/tops-trojmorza/tops-trojmorza-w-w-w/, accessed 12.01.2025.
[4] Łukasz Lewkowicz, Marlena Gołębiowska, Initiative of the 3 Seas after Vilnius Summit: first, security, https://ies.lublin.pl/comments/kies-1102/ access 27.12.2024.
[5] squad of the investigation Centre of the Tri-Sea Initiative, Summit of the Tri-Sea Initiative in Vilnius, https://trojmorze.isppan.waw.pl/tops-trojmorza/tops-trojmorza-w-w-w/ access 27.12.2024.
[6] squad of the investigation Centre for the Tri-Sea Initiative, Information of the Minister of abroad Affairs on the current state of cooperation within the Tri-Sea Initiative, https://trojmorze.isppan.waw.pl/updates/information-government-foreign affairs-on-theme-current-state-in-work-in-frame-initiative-the-trojmorze/ access 13.01.2025.
[7] The Chancellery of the president of the Republic of Poland, Head of the BPM: U.S. president Donald Trump will be invited to the summit of the Trimorz Initiative, https://www.president.pl/cancelaria/activity-minister/chief-bpm-president-usa-donald-trump-will be invited-to-peer-initiative-trojmorza,95729, access 27.12.2024.
[8] Resolution supporting 3 Seas Initiative unanimously passes U.S. home of Representatives, https://3seas.eu/media/news/solution-supporting-three-seas-initiative-unanimous-passes-u-s-house-of-representatives, accessed 13.01.2025.
[9] Polish Radio, Local legislature of the Trimor. US Ambassador to Poland: we stand side by side https://polskieradio24.pl/Article/2974302, self-government-congress-trojmorza-ambasador-usa-in-polska-stoimy-ramie-in, access 12.01.25,
