Three Seas Initiative Bucharest summit to strengthen cross-border interconnections

Leaders of central and eastern European countries attend the plenary session of the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Bucharest, Romania, on Sept. 6, 2023. The important decisions adopted at the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative (TSI) on Wednesday will contribute to further strengthening the cross-border interconnections of the member countries through transport, energy and digitization, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)

BUCHAREST, Sept. 6 (Xinhua) -- The important decisions adopted at the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative (TSI) on Wednesday will contribute to further strengthening the cross-border interconnections of the member countries through transport, energy and digitization, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday.

"Today we concluded a successful summit, at which we adopted important decisions concerning both the future directions of action and the necessary orientations in the new geopolitical context, as well as the practical instruments, including financial, of the initiative," Iohannis told a joint press conference after the summit, together with his Polish and Lithuanian counterparts and with the Croatian prime minister.

Iohannis said that Greece became the TSI's 13th member state, and Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova became associated states.

He said that the TSI's two permanent objectives were reconfirmed during the summit: reducing the development gaps between the Three Seas region (Baltic, Adriatic and Black Sea) and the rest of the European Union (EU) by strengthening cohesion within the EU, enhancing the TSI's regional contribution in the process of strengthening transatlantic ties.

The summit participants also decided to support the member states in creating an Innovation Fund, Iohannis said, noting that this new instrument, with increased flexibility, will be complementary to the already existing financial vehicles, focusing mainly on advanced technologies applied in the priority areas of the member states.

On the sidelines of the 8th edition of the TSI summit, the 5th edition of the initiative's Business Forum will take place on Thursday at the Parliament Palace.

The TSI is a flexible and informal platform launched in 2015 by the presidents of Poland and Croatia. The host country of the 2024 summit will be Lithuania.

Leaders of central and eastern European countries attend the plenary session of the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Bucharest, Romania, on Sept. 6, 2023. The important decisions adopted at the Bucharest Summit of the Three Seas Initiative (TSI) on Wednesday will contribute to further strengthening the cross-border interconnections of the member countries through transport, energy and digitization, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Wednesday. (Photo by Cristian Cristel/Xinhua)