President of the Republic of Estonia At The Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest

I would like to thank our kind host, Klaus Iohannis, for organizing this years’ Summit. It´s wonderful to be in beautiful Bucharest.

A warm welcome to Greece to the Initiative. Your participation brings the Eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea into our network and expands the benefits of that cooperation to the whole region. I would also like to see it extend further North.

Following Ukraine, we are now welcoming Moldova as an associated participating state. While facing major challenges, Moldova has clearly demonstrated its commitment to the European path. Let us engage both countries in our discussions and remain open to ideas on how the Initiative can best benefit them!

We must see the Three Sea Initiative for what it is – an initiative to boost the investments to important infrastructure projects to create more united and better connected Europe. To bring a narrative - “together we are stronger” into reality.

Roads and railways, digital connections and cooperation in sustainable energy production, will add to our security and resilience to face threats posed by our adversaries.

We are well aware of the International Monetary Fund´s (IMF) study, highlighting the fact that countries in Central and Eastern Europe have more than a 1 trillion-euro gap in infrastructure investments compared to Western Europe. This gap has a geopolitical significance.

To prepare the EU for the next enlargement there´s a critical need to build enablers for cooperation, foremost infrastructure. Our most immediate plan should be to build a single infrastructural backbone to connect the Easter flank of the EU and link Ukraine and Moldova with this corridor. It also makes great economic sense, as we will connect a market of more than 100 million people.

Our greatest task in moving forward is to attract private capital to fulfil our investment plans. If we fail, other actors, who do not share our values would fill that void. Trust, is our key currency.

Therefore, we need to market this initiative worldwide amongst our allies and partners. Using annual summits as an opportunity to attract institutional investors, who are interested in profiting from investing in the 3SI Fund.

To close 50% of the current gap in infrastructure projects compared to the Western Europe by 2030 would require investments worth of 3 to 8% of GDP annually. Cross border projects could magnify the benefits of such investments.

Different studies estimate that higher infrastructure investment by 1 % of GDP leads to higher real GDP by about half to 1% immediately during the first year and by 2 to 3 % over a decade.

Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has put the entire region’s economic perspective under major pressure. It has also demonstrated our weaknesses. Therefore, I strongly believe that Baltic and Carpathian transport corridors must be linked and connected to routs to Ukraine and Moldova.

Focusing on railroad as the most sustainable, efficient and strategically versatile mean of transportation. In this contexts, pushing the Rail Baltic project forward will remain my priority.

3SI projects should complement the EU's plans. With rail as its base, a new horizon of possibilities opens up, including business opportunities, military and humanitarian mobility or people-to-people contacts. Infrastructure investment is a key priority to accelerate convergence.

Russia’s brutal war of aggression and destruction of Ukraine has created an urgent need for our joint effort to rebuild Ukraine. Reconstruction of infrastructure would increase our ability to help our friend.

The Commission’s initiative of Solidarity Lanes towards the EU is important and we must keep these lanes open. I also see that the Baltic Corridor of the EU Solidarity Lanes has unused potential.

Dear friends,

We all have realised the importance of trusted connectivity connections many years ago. We cannot rely on solutions externally designed to divide and govern. To further our commitment to improve connectivity, I look forward to the next 3SI Summit and wish Lithuania every success as host country.