The tenth annual Three Seas Initiative (3SI) took place in Warsaw at the end of April. The platform, established in 2016 by 12 EU member states with shared Iron Curtain experience, aims to foster cooperation between countries in northern and southern Europe—and to harness the Baltic, Black and Adriatic sea regions via a network of energy, connectivity and infrastructure projects.

Now the 3SI member list boasts Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia, all of which are NATO allies except Austria. And the initiative continues to grow: in 2022 and 2023, the 3SI named Ukraine and Moldova as partner-participants, while Albania and Montenegro also gained this status in 2025.

Italy, however, is missing. Rome is in a prime geographical location for the initiative’s southern reaches; prime minister Giorgia Meloni understands its growing strategic importance for participating countries. But Italy’s past and present governments have not considered the 3SI an urgent geopolitical priority. Now Meloni needs to look beyond Italy’s traditional geographical interest areas of the Western Balkans and the southern Mediterranean, engage in more radical formats of regional cooperation, and take a more longitudinal approach to its economic security.