The countries participating in the Three Seas initiative have created a new partnership format and granted Ukraine the status of a partner.
This was announced by Polish President Andrzej Duda at Monday’s 3SI summit in Riga, reports TVN 24.
Unlike a strategic partnership linking the 3SI countries with the US, UK or the European Commission, the new form of partnership is addressed to potential EU member states.
“We decided to establish a special new type of partnership with the Three Seas Initiative – in addition to the strategic partnership – partnership through participation. This is a new type of partnership, which is not only for Ukraine.
We have granted it to Ukraine today, but we assume that this kind of partnership can be shared by the countries located in Central Europe that are not members of the EU but aspire to join it,” Duda said.
The President of Poland added that the countries that are going to join the EU will be able to apply for such a format of partnership with the Three Seas Initiative.
Duda stressed that all the Three Seas countries support granting Ukraine official EU candidate status.
“I hope that the decision on this issue will be made by the European Council this week – at the end of the week, because then there will be a meeting of this council,” said the Polish president.
Ukraine has repeatedly expressed a desire to join the Three Seas.
As you might remember, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was invited to take part in the 3SI summit as a guest via video link, said that Ukraine should become a full-time participant in the Three Seas Initiative.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the 3SI would not be possible without an independent Ukraine, and hinted at the importance of Ukraine’s involvement in this format of cooperation.
In 2016, Polish President Duda and his then Croatian counterpart Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic founded the Three Seas Initiative as a platform for economic cooperation between Central European EU countries.
It has twelve European Union states located along the north-south axis from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic and Black Seas, hence the name.
Read more about Intermarium:
- Intermarium as a Compromise Solution
- Building the Intermarium / Międzymorze: Practical Problems
- Intermarium: History and the balance of power in Central Europe
