The President of Latvia appreciated the commitment that US President of the United States expressed on strengthening the cooperation with Europe and continued maintenance of security in the region. “The United States once again reaffirmed its commitment to Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. We are also grateful for the deployment of US soldiers and military equipment in Latvia,” stressed Raimonds Vējonis.
The President of Latvia acknowledged that the US President’s attendance at the summit of the Three Seas Initiative proved the interest of the United States in seeking new opportunities for cooperation with the European Union (EU) in economics, transport, and energy, which was in line with the currently ongoing, active EU-US political dialogue.
“Latvia and Europe find the initiative to export natural gas from the USA to Europe as significant, because we are interested in diversifying the sources of energy supplies. Apart from economic benefits, cooperation with the US can contribute to greater resilience of the region to various current security challenges, for example, to strengthening the energy security of Europe. We see engagement of the USA in the Initiative of the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea as positive and complementary to the EU implemented policies and support programs promoting development of the infrastructure, construction of interconnections, cross-border cooperation in a vast range of areas,” stated Raimonds Vējonis.
When addressing the participants of the summit of the Three Seas Initiative, the President of Latvia noted the importance of a single approach of the European Union (EU) and the EU funding while attracting private investment for the development of regional infrastructure projects. Together with other countries of the region, Latvia is currently implementing the ambitious railway project, Rail Baltica. Latvia is also interested in accelerating the synchronisation projects of gas interconnections and power grid interconnections between the Baltic States and other EU Member States.
The Three Seas Initiative engages 12 EU countries geographically located between the Adriatic Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Black Sea: Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary. The informal platform is designed to provide political support for the implementation of transnational and regional projects and thus contribute to building a united, secure, and competitive Europe.