Program Details

This program with Ambassador Vseviov on the Three Seas Initiative is in cosponsorship with the Colorado European Union Center of Excellence at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The Three Seas Initiative was launched in 2016 by twelve Central and Eastern European nations to facilitate greater cross border cooperation north to south. It’s foremost an economic initiative to benefit the countries situated between Western Europe and Russia. Its purpose is to attract global investment for joint infrastructure projects in a part of Europe that lacks such basic linkages as transportation and communications that have long existed in the Western part of the continent.

This Initiative stretches from the Baltic Sea through the Central European countries of Poland, Hungary and the Czech and Slovak Republics to several on the eastern Adriatic Sea and even borders on the western rim of the Black Sea. The IMF has estimated in a report that the need for investment is 1.3 trillion Euros to close the gap with Western Europe. The Initiative, developed at the impetus of the countries involved, is not an EU or NATO project per se but international in scope and supported by both. Ultimately, this initiative will benefit the whole of Europe and beyond. The US has also pledged up to $1 billion dollars to help make the Three Seas Initiative a positive pillar of TransAtlantic relations.

Jonatan Vseviov has been serving as Estonia´s Ambassador to the United States since August 2018. This is his third diplomatic posting in Washington, DC. Before assuming his current duties, Vseviov worked at the Estonian Ministry of Defense for 10 years, rising to the post of Permanent Secretary. Until his appointment as Permanent Secretary in January 2016, Mr. Vseviov served as the Undersecretary for Defense Planning, the Acting Undersecretary for Defense Policy, and Director of Policy Planning.