Thematic event “Building resilience through quality and sustainable infrastructure connectivity” on 13 December 2022 at the UN Headquarters in New York was co-organized by Permanent Missions of Latvia and Poland and co-sponsored by Permanent Mission of Japan.
The event provided an opportunity for Member States and other stakeholders to exchange best practices on promoting quality, sustainable and resilient infrastructure and promoting regional cooperation in this regard. Speakers at the event included the President of the Economic and Social Council H.E. Ms Lachezara Stoeva, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Poland to the UN H.E. Mr Krzysztof Szczerski, representatives from Missions of Japan, Indonesia and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction - New York Liaison Office.
H.E. Mr Andrejs Pildegovičs, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN delivered welcoming and closing remarks and H.E. Mr Edgars Bondars, Ambassador-at-Large for the Three Seas Initiative at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia presented a regional cooperation platform the Three Seas Initiative.
Remarks by H.E. Mr. Andrejs Pildegovičs,
Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Latvia to the UN
Welcoming remarks
Dear President of ECOSOC,
Excellencies, distinguished speakers, dear participants,
I’m pleased to welcome all of you today in-person and online to the thematic event called “Building resilience through quality and sustainable infrastructure connectivity”.
Before I continue with welcoming remarks, I would like to kindly remind participants online to keep their microphones muted and to turn them on only when given the floor – there will be time for interventions later on. Additionally, please be aware that this event is an open event and is also being recorded with the purpose of having a recording that can be shared afterwards. Lastly, I realize that the event is happening at the same time as the World Cup semi-finals – I trust that we will keep each other updated on the score as we go.
Dear colleagues,
Soccer aside, in today’s discussion we are covering some big themes - infrastructure, resilience and regional and inter-regional cooperation.
This event is co-organized Missions of Latvia and Poland, and co-sponsored by Mission of Japan. We are happy to see so many participants, including PRs, finding the time in the busy schedule and end-of-year agendas to join the discussion as we look forward hear about the challenges we share and the diverse perspectives we might have.
Therefore, I am especially pleased to welcome to New York a representative from Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs – my dear colleague Ambassador-at-Large for the Three Seas Initiative Mr. Edgars Bondars, who has been instrumental in making this event happen today. Ambassador Bondars is here to share Latvia’s perspective on the topics of today’s discussion and showcase the Three Seas Initiative. This is a politically inspired, commercially driven platform for improving connectivity between twelve EU Member States located between Baltic, Adriatic and Black seas thus contributing to the resilience of these countries and regions.
Before I move on, just a few reflections. It is clear that there is a significant global investment gap worldwide, and the infrastructure gap is especially stark in developing countries. As a proud Member of the Team Europe, we’re closely following the roll-out of EU’s Global Gateway strategy that seeks to address this challenge and the demand for investment high quality infrastructure, whilst ensuring high environmental and social standards. That said, it is also true that ensuring proper connectivity can be a challenge in developed countries as well. Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine, climate change have revealed long-existing and new vulnerabilities. It has required a rethinking of approaches and reinforcement of commitment and efforts.
Case in point, for a long time the Baltic region was effectively an “energy island” lacking interconnections with other EU Member States and thus vulnerable to the risks that come with over-reliance on a single supplier and lack of access to regional and global markets. Years of focus and investing in infrastructure, market reforms and regional cooperation, we see that is no longer the case – we are not an energy island anymore. However, in light of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, we have again been challenged to deepen our integration with regional and global energy markets at more rapid pace and speed up the green transition to secure alternative sources of energy. That will require development of quality infrastructure with the objective of building more resilient energy system, economy and society.
This is just one example to demonstrate the perspectives and experience that we expect to share today. We hope that the event will useful in identifying ways of approaching connectivity gaps, best practice for developing quality, sustainable and resilient infrastructure, including in the digital domain.
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Closing remarks
Excellencies, dear colleagues,
On behalf of all organizers of this event I would like to thank everyone contribution for this rich and valuable discussion today. Special thanks to our speakers - President of ECOSOC, Ambassador Bondars, Mr. Nakagawa from Mission of Japan, Ms. Mamesah from Mission of Indonesia, Mr. Beynon from UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. I want to thank all PRs, DPRs, experts, representatives of civil society who have contributed by highlighting your priorities. I think we have all benefited from your regional, sub-regional perspectives. We have heard news from Central America, from Central Asia, from South-East Asia, Eastern Europe, from European Union, from Pacific Region, from India, from Ukraine. We have heard a lot of valuable ideas about trusted connectivity, enhanced connectivity, about necessary standards, which we have to take into consideration. We talked about future steps. I think this discussion has been very forward-looking and hopefully it has been useful for the work ahead next year. Ambassador Szczerski already provided a sneak peek on what to expect in January with regards to a new draft GA resolution on infrastructure resilience. We have also heard throughout the discussion some of the expectations for the high-level processes in the ECOSOC and the General Assembly. I also hope that of our discussion today is a modest contribution to our joint efforts and discourse on Our Common Agenda, which also speaks of resilience in the context of climate change or international trade and supply chains.
That said, at the end of the day, what really counts are expectations of the people in our countries. That they will have reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity to power their everyday lives. That they will have access to a well-developed transportation networks that can connect peoples, goods and services. That they will have meaningful and trusted internet connectivity. All these expectations require continuous work on the backbone of our economies and societies - to develop and maintain of quality, sustainable and resilient infrastructure in line with the principles of good governance, rule of law, human rights, and international norms, as well as high environmental and social standards. We have heard today that regional cooperation in this area offers significant benefits, but it is not without it challenges and requires persistent work and dedication to enhancing political and economic cooperation, multi-stakeholder approach. We have also heard about the strain climate change and natural disasters can put on infrastructure and the work UNDRR, G20 and coalitions of countries are undertaking to elevate the discussion on infrastructure resilience.
I thank again all colleagues from Missions of Poland, Latvia and Japan for very thorough preparatory work.
I want to use this occasion to wish you all restful holiday season and hope to see you in January in core group and preparatory meetings for the GA resolution on infrastructure resilience.
Thank you so much!
Presentation by Ambassador-at-Large Mr. Edgars Bondars,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia
“Three Seas Initiative: Regional project with the international importance”
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, distinguished colleagues, excellencies!
In 2015 leaders of 12 EU countries located between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas joined forces and Three Seas Initiative was started. Initiative is a solid platform that offers a complementary base for meaningful discussions and practical cooperation.
Need to join efforts arose out of our similar historical experience in the region, geographical location and a common European path.
As previously was mentioned by my colleague Andrejs Pildegovičs, Three Seas Initiative is “politically inspired but commercially driven”. By this importance of cooperation between public and private sectors was underlined in transport, energy and digital fields. Three Seas Initiative is about a creating a connectivity that is trusted, reliable and with the goal to increase the resilience in the region.
Twelve participating states of the Three Seas Initiative in many ways are fully integrated into the fabric of Europe and share a common goals to develop infrastructure connectivity.
This year’s Summit in Riga focused on the development of better resilience throughout the region, emphasising the importance of the closely connected region.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has changed the economic geography of the Three Seas region. Our energy, transport and digital connectivity was placed in sharp focus, logistic chains were being challenged.
New sources and capacities for energy are urgently needed across our region, so that we may continue to grow and stay resilient.
However, our needs are still manageable compared with the rebuilding that Ukraine will require after the war will have ended. Latvia envisages a close partnership between the Three Seas Initiative and Ukraine, given that we are neighbours in terms of geographical location, and have strong common values. In Riga Summit Ukraine was invited to join Three Seas Imitative with immediate effect and this was also reflected in the Declaration of the Riga Summit
Besides the political part of the Summit, Business Forum took place. It was organized with the aim to link the vision of future connectivity with action.
From the business perspective our goal is to reach trusted connectivity, achieved in cooperation with investors who share our values and care for our region’s needs.
In Riga Summit we set priorities – one of that was to involve the United States, involve Ukraine into the processes of the Three Seas Initiative as well as drawing attention to like-mined partners outside the region, countries like United Kingdom and Japan.
Positive results in Riga Summit were achieved: 1) U.S. DFC announced about 300 M$ investment into the Three Seas Investment Fund; 2) Ukraine became a partner to the Initiative; 3) a strong interest from the United Kingdom and Japan was expressed during the Riga Summit.
Support pledged by the United States for the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund is very important for our region. It gives us encouragement and should instil confidence in private investors not only from the US.
Support pledged by the United States for the Three Seas Initiative Investment Fund is very important for our region. It gives us encouragement and should instil confidence in private investors not only from the US.
The Three Seas Initiative is not just about boosting the economy of today, but also about building an economy for tomorrow.
It is quite obvious that success of the Initiative lies in effective cooperation between countries in the region and continued involvement of strategic partners.
At the end of my presentation I would like to express the words of appreciation to Poland for support to the Three Seas initiative and best wishes to Romania that will host the 3SI summit and the Business forum in 2023.
Thank you very much!