Assistant Secretary for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt Three Seas Initiative Summit Plenary Session

A/S Pyatt: Thank you President Nausėda, Excellencies. It’s a great honor to be here to reinforce the United States’ strong commitment to the vision of the Three Seas Initiative.

I’m particularly pleased to do so here in Vilnius, in view of Lithuania’s longstanding leadership in our collective support for the people of Ukraine.

For the United States, the Three Seas Initiative is critical to Europe’s two transitions — moving away permanently from Russian energy sources and accelerating the clean energy transition and related interconnectivity.

The Three Seas will also play, as President Nausėda emphasized, a central role in Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction and future of EU membership.

As we discussed today ways in which we can continue to grow and strengthen the Three Seas Initiative, I would like to propose three American priorities for consideration.

First, we should look at ways to expand interconnections with partner countries and non-member neighbors. Not only will this further enhance the energy security of the larger region by diversifying sources, supplies, and types of energy, but it will also cement the bonds of shared prosperity.

For example, the proposed vertical corridor from Greece north to Ukraine and Moldova can leverage existing gas infrastructure to offer Europe additional flexibility as it continues to phase out Russian gas supplies by 2027 and moves to clean hydrogen as an energy carrier.

Another example is increased electricity nodes between the EU and Ukraine to enable Ukraine after its victory to become an exporter of clean energy from nuclear, wind, solar, and biomass sources.

Secondly, we should look collectively at ways to increase private sector engagement as Lithuanian has done so successfully with this year’s summit. Public/private partnerships will be vital to accelerating our energy transitions and achieving a secure, interconnected, and resilient energy system as President Biden has continuously emphasized.

This is where our sovereign and international financial institutions including U.S. DFC and EXIM play such an important role in underwriting risk and giving projects that extra nudge needed to get to FID. We see successful examples in DFC’s support for the Elefsina shipyards in Greece and the Chiren gas storage project in Bulgaria. Or EXIM and USAID’s work to support Ukraine’s shift to a cleaner, more modern and decentralized energy system integrated with the EU.

Third, this region will lead the way in Europe on small, modular, reactor projects that do not rely on Russian supplies or Russian services.

In Czechia, Slovakia, Poland and perhaps here in the Baltics, the State Department’s Project Phoenix will help repurpose infrastructure from the past to support cleaner, greener, and more resilient technologies for the future.

Our strong cooperation in Romania on the Doicesti SMR project with President Iohannis’ personal leadership will establish the nuclear energy supply chains of the future across the Three Seas Corridor.

In sum, we have a lot to do together, and the United States remains firmly committed to the success of this issue and our partners in the region from Tallinn to Athens and Zagreb to Kyiv.

Thank you very much.

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