Estonian president to attend Three Seas Summit, business forum in Riga

TALLINN – Estonian President Alar Karis will participate in the Three Seas Summit and a business forum in Riga on Monday, which will focus on ways to establish secure regional connectivity networks with the aim of establishing transport, energy and digital connections on the eastern north-south axis of Europe by involving also private investments, in addition to public investments.

There will also be a discussion on how to support Ukraine and work together in the framework of the Three Seas Initiative, spokespeople for the president's office said. 

The summit will be attended by the presidents of almost all the Three Seas countries and Vice-President of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will address the summit via video. The summit will also see messages delivered from the UK, France, Canada and Japan, which are among the countries interested in the initiative's projects and ways for them to be funded.

The business forum will bring together around 500 participants from the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Sea areas and elsewhere. Some of the more than 100 projects of the Three Seas Initiative investment fund are related to Ukraine and Moldova. Europe's economic and political geography has changed as a result of the war in Ukraine, which is why the summit will also focus on supporting Ukraine.

Of Estonian companies, Greenergy, Estonian Railways, GoFore, Timbeter, Citic Telecom CPC, Millton, Maksimi, Startup Wise Guys Foundation and representatives from the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Enterprise Estonia will participate in the business forum.

President Karis will also meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen in Riga.

The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) is a regional cooperation format that brings together 12 European Union member states located between the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.