06/20/2022 07:07 (act 06/20/2022 09:39)
Van der Bellen travels to Riga. ©APA/ROLAND SCHLAGER
On Monday, President Van der Bellen will travel to the Latvian capital Riga to show solidarity with Ukraine.
Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen travels to Latvia’s capital Riga on Monday to send a sign of solidarity with Ukraine at a meeting with his counterparts from Central and Eastern European countries. “We will not allow ourselves to be divided and will do everything we can to end the Russian war of aggression as quickly as possible and restore peace,” Van der Bellen emphasized in the run-up to the Three Seas Initiative Presidential Summit. .
Van der Bellen meets counterparts in Riga: “Solidarity with Ukraine”
“In these difficult times, when the horrors of war have returned to Europe, we stand together,” said Van der Bellen. The initiative includes twelve EU countries, from the Baltic to the Adriatic and the Black Sea. They fear they could be targeted by the aggressor Vladimir Putin. In this context, Poland is pushing for Ukraine to be included in the Three Seas Initiative. German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and EU Deputy Commission Chair Valdis Dombrovskis are also expected as guests.
Van der Bellen is also planning bilateral talks with the presidents of Poland (Andrzej Duda), Estonia (Alar Karis) and Bulgaria (Rumen Radew) in Riga. In addition, there will also be brief meetings with the Latvian hosts Egils Levits and Steinmeier and possibly the other presidents of Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Hungary who will be present, according to the Chancellery of the Presidency.
Dependence on Russia must be reduced
The initiative, founded in 2016, aims to strengthen regional energy and transport infrastructure to reduce dependence on Russia. Specifically, this should be done, for example, by expanding liquefied gas terminals in Poland and Croatia. The initiative was strongly supported by the United States from the start, and US President Donald Trump even attended the second summit in Warsaw in 2017. Austria is the only non-NATO member in the round, but its central geographic location means that has an important role to play in efforts to strengthen “connectivity” in Central and Eastern Europe.