Plugging America’s Energy Leaders into the Three Seas Summit

More than 1,200 policymakers, business leaders, and investors gathered on Croatia’s Adriatic coast in late April 2026 for the annual gathering of the Three Seas Initiative, an alliance of 13 European Union countries between the Baltic, Adriatic, and Black Seas,  representing 120 million people and $3.5 trillion in collective GDP.

All representatives from the member nations in attendance had one question on their minds: How can energy, infrastructure, and technology be improved across the region?

The answers could be found among the many discussions that took place at USA House, hosted by BCIU in partnership with the U.S. Department of State on the margins of the 11th Three Seas Initiative Summit and Business Forum.

USA House served as an inspiring, exclusive, two-day platform meant to connect senior administration officials, U.S. embassy leadership, and the American energy industry. USA House functioned as a true home base for bilateral meetings, discussions on administration priorities, and informal conversations that do not always happen on a main-stage agenda. Senior U.S. officials present included Energy Secretary Chris Wright; Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Allison Hooker; U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Nicole McGraw; Thomas Hardy, Deputy Director and COO of USTDA; Conor Coleman, Chief of Staff and Head of Investments at DFC; Joshua Volz, Special Envoy for Global Energy Integration at the Department of Energy; and USTDA Regional Director Carl B. Kress.

By the time the Summit concluded, billions of dollars’ worth of U.S.-backed agreements had been signed—among them a Joint Statement between the U.S. and Croatia to advance Croatia’s readiness to deploy U.S. nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) technology. With those agreements, a new chapter in U.S. commercial engagement with the region had clearly opened.

An invitation from Foggy Bottom

This USA House began, as so many BCIU initiatives do, with a simple exploratory call—one made possible thanks to yearslong relationships built on trust.

The U.S. Department of State called BCIU because of its proven capacity to convene U.S. industry alongside foreign governments at scale. State brought the platform and the high-level government participation. BCIU brought the programming, the relationships, the financial model and, most importantly, the possibilities.

“Our role is to be the place where American industry and the U.S. government can meet international counterparts in a setting where real conversations actually happen,” said Nina Kundra, Senior Vice President at BCIU. “When State asked us to take this on, it was because they knew we could deliver that, and that we could do it quickly.”

The initiative was supported through two complementary sources of funding. Former Air Products CEO Seifi Ghasemi, who is championing BCIU’s work on energy innovation, provided financial support, followed by additional contributions from private sector companies that joined as corporate partners of USA House.

“This is exactly what the campaign is built for,” said Caitlin Noone, BCIU’s Chief Operating Officer. “A donor’s vision plus our member companies’ commercial interests, channeled through our convening relationships with the U.S. government. That formula is repeatable, and it’s how we’ll grow.”

Powering Europe with American industry

Energy ran through nearly every conversation at USA House because the Three Seas region sits at the intersection of European energy security, manufacturing competitiveness, and a generational decision about how to power what comes next.

BCIU produced a slate of panel discussions over two days, all live-streamed, including:

• Powering Europe: Energy, Digital Infrastructure, and the Next Generation of Innovation
• American Innovation and Competitiveness in Energy, Transportation, and Infrastructure
• AI, Infrastructure, Energy Security, and Industrial Competitiveness
• A Fireside Chat on American Energy Innovation, featuring U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright in conversation with U.S. Ambassador to Croatia Nicole McGraw

“The path to prosperity is more energy, not less,” Secretary Wright said during the fireside chat.

A series of fireside chats featured industry representatives from the U.S. and Three Seas nations engaged directly with senior officials from the Department of Energy, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency (USTDA), the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), and the State Department. Among the topics they discussed were:

• Nuclear energy: With NuScale Power and Westinghouse Electric Company on hand, conversations turned repeatedly to advanced reactors and small modular reactor (SMR) systems—including the planned deployment of Westinghouse AP1000 units in Poland and Romania’s selection of NuScale’s SMR design for the first SMR deployment in Europe. With growing energy demand generally, never mind the proliferation of power-hungry data centers, SMRs offer faster construction, lower costs, and a more flexible way to generate baseload power since they can be manufactured at scale and deployed where they are needed, unlike traditional nuclear power plants.
• LND trade and infrastructure: Croatia’s Krk LNG terminal was cited as a model for how American supply has reshaped regional security. BCIU member Google joined sessions on AI and digital infrastructure, where the through-line was U.S. competitiveness across the full industrial stack.
• Finance: Investments backed by agencies like the DFC carry requirements that American companies be engaged to implement key components of the work—meaning a single federal commitment can open the door to a much wider set of commercial opportunities for U.S. firms. That’s why conversations happening at USA House were not abstract; they were the early stages of project pipelines that, by design, run through American industry. One example of U.S. government capital flowing into the region is a major regional data center commitment that, by design, channels U.S. private-sector firms into project execution.

A platform with reach

What made USA House work was the access it created.

“BCIU has spent seven decades building exactly this kind of access,” Kundra said. “Our job is to make sure that when the U.S. government decides to lead, American industry has a seat at the table—and that foreign partners know how to find them.”

USA House also served under the U.S. government’s broader Freedom 250 program, the federal initiative commemorating America’s 250th anniversary by spotlighting the U.S. private sector at major international convenings. But USA House also served as a sign of what’s to come.

It is also a model that demonstrates the art of the possible when BCIU members, U.S. government partners, and public- and private-sector officials come together for face-to-face discussions—a model that BCIU has replicated across sectors and geographies.

“We were the right partner for this because we create access built on trust, so tangible results can be realized quickly,” Noone said. “That’s what BCIU does. We bring the parties together so they can move things forward.”