WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2020) US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu held talks to follow up on an October summit of the 12 EU nations in the Three Seas Initiative, which aims to expand north-south connectivity between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas, the State Department said in a readout of the conversation.
"Secretary Pompeo expressed appreciation for Estonia's hosting of the Three Seas Initiative Virtual Summit, reaffirmed the US commitment to invest up to $1 billion in Three Seas infrastructure projects," the readout said on Thursday.
The Three Seas Initiative is political platform launched in 2015 linking the 12 EU Member States located between the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Seas: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
In October, Pompeo addressed a virtual summit of Arctic Council member nations. The United States committed earlier this year to investing up to $1 billion toward Three Seas energy projects through the US International Development Finance Corporation.
Pompeo also commended Estonia for imposing sanctions on the Lebanese-based Islamist group Hezbollah last month in a discussion that also touched on European security, as well as developments in Belarus and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the readout said.
