Warsaw’s economic diplomacy has moved past the Three Seas Initiative, the regional format Poland has promoted since 2015, finance and economy minister Andrzej Domański has told Rzeczpospolita. Since Poland formally joined the work of the G20 in December 2025, the country’s diplomatic resources have been concentrated on projects with a global reach.
The Three Seas Initiative was established in 2015 on the initiative of the presidents of Poland and Croatia, Andrzej Duda and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. Its member states sought to shift the centre of European decision-making away from Brussels, Berlin and Paris towards Warsaw, Prague, Zagreb and Bucharest.
The war in Ukraine, defence spending, Nordic-Baltic cooperation and new formats, among them Ukraine’s Carpathian Integration Initiative, have since pulled attention away from the 3SI, which for years served as Poland’s flagship regional undertaking. The Initiative also keeps failing to convert declarations into investments, and its infrastructure fund remains small when measured against the needs of the region.
A regional project pushed to the margins
Maciej Dachowski, director of the foreign policy and European integration programme at the Kazimierz Pułaski Foundation, describes how the emphasis in Warsaw’s priorities has changed.
– The war, defence spending, Nordic-Baltic cooperation and new formats such as Ukraine’s Carpathian Integration Initiative have shifted attention away from the 3SI format, which for years was Poland’s main regional project. What is more, the Initiative still struggles to move from declarations to investment, and its infrastructure fund remains modest compared with the region’s needs – said Maciej Dachowski.
Poland’s promotion into what the daily calls diplomacy’s Champions League has added to the loss of momentum. Membership of the G20, in whose work Warsaw has taken part since December 2025, now absorbs the attention and the resources of Polish diplomats.
Central Europe’s voice at the G20 table
Andrzej Domański does not treat the regional format as a closed chapter. He argues that cooperation in Central Europe still matters, and points to Czechia, the second-largest market in the world for Polish exports.
– Regional cooperation is still important to us. Look at Czechia, which is the second-largest recipient of our exports in the world. At the G20 we also feel that we represent Central Europe and we try to speak on behalf of the whole region – said the minister of finance and economy.
In his account, the Three Seas Initiative now sits in the background of Poland’s economic diplomacy, whose ambitions reach beyond the region.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. Radek Pietruszka / PAP
