Due to the six-hour time difference between Washington, D.C., and Warsaw, Poland, Americans were waking up Thursday to President Donald Trump speaking live from the Three Seas Initiative Summit.
The Three Seas Initiative was launched last year as a joint Polish-Croatian project aimed at strengthening economic and political cooperation among the nations that border the Adriatic, Baltic and Black seas. Members, most of which are former Soviet republics—or were part of the Soviet Union’s Eastern Bloc—are:
- Poland
- Croatia
- Hungary
- Czech Republic
- Slovakia
- Romania
- Bulgaria
- Lithuania
- Estonia
- Latvia
- Slovenia
- Austria
Each of these countries is highly reliant upon Russia for supplies of natural gas and oil, which has become unreliable as the government there uses this fact as leverage to exert influence over the former Soviet satellites. The president is expected to make a pitch to sell U.S. energy to these countries, which would be a win-win, but could become a major issue with the Russians.
The speech the president was scheduled to give at approximately 7:15 a.m. EDT will likely announce a major agreement along these lines.
The president will be traveling later on Thursday to Hamburg, Germany, which will be the site of the G20 meetings. There, he is expected to have sideline meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as meetings related to the current situation with North Korea and its test launch of an ICBM on Tuesday.
You can watch the full speech above as it happens live. Below is a video clip of the president’s “two and two” press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda.
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