Thus, it is logical to analyze the prospects for transforming the vectors of cooperation between the Baltic States and the Visegrad group, taking into account many factors that are caused by both external variables and internal specifics of the region. Looking at the issue from a more global perspective, it is worth noting that both the Baltic countries - Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, and the Visegrad group countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland are members of the Three Seas Initiative. Officially declared goals of this Initiative are considered to be stimulating economic development, improving transport, energy and digital cooperation, as well as increasing energy security. The last goal of the Three seas Initiative-improving energy security - can be considered as the most significant and priority in the context of the local specifics of the region, which confirms the list of so-called “unofficial” goals of the Three seas Initiative. These can be considered: limiting Russian influence on the territory of Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova; using bandwagoning towards US and NATO; forming a so-called buffer zone between Brussels, represented by the EU and Moscow. At first glance, this behavior of the Three seas Initiative countries could be due to Russia's actions in Ukraine in 2014, as well as other aggressive aspects of Russia's foreign policy.
In fact, this interpretation of the motives of the countries participating in the Three seas Initiative is not incorrect. All 12 countries of the Initiative are interested in forming a more independent energy system from Russia, but in this situation, it will be appropriate to consider the historical context of the prerequisites for creating the current motives for this formation. The idea of the Three seas Initiative originates soon after the First world war, as well as the unsuccessful attempt of the USSR in 1919-1921 to launch an intervention in Europe to further spread communism under the slogan “Through the corpse of white Poland lies the path to world fire”. Thus, Poland at that time initiated the creation of a Confederate Union of States under the General name “Intermarium”, which included a similar list of countries with the Three seas Initiative – Poland, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. According to the Chief of the Polish State at that time, Józef Pilsudski, the creation of such a Confederation allowed not only to improve the economic, technological and energy potential of the participating countries, but also to avoid the domination of Central Europe by Germany or Russia.
