By Anthony B Kim ~

Russia’s war on Ukraine makes the effort known as the Three Seas Initiative “even more urgent,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent speech via video to a related summit meeting in Riga, Latvia.

The urgency is not only for the initiative’s member nations and partners, Blinken said during his June 24 remarks, but for its focus areas of energy, transportation, and digital communications.

Crosscutting regional challenges and a lackluster commitment from Washington keep progress with the Three Seas Initiative far slower and smaller than hoped. Pictured: Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at a press conference at the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin on June 24, the same day he addressed a Three Seas Initiative summit by video in Latvia. (Photo: Mika Savolainen-Pool/Getty Images)

Indeed, the issue of making the Three Seas Initiative, launched in 2015, more practically operational has gained…