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Representative of President Trump urges "energy addition" at Three Seas Initiative in Dubrovnik
Summary
A representative of President Trump told the Three Seas Initiative in Dubrovnik that the U.S. will expand natural gas export capacity by an estimated 15–20 million tons this year, praised Croatia's Krk terminal as a regional hub and criticized a prior pause on new export terminals as "energy subtraction."
A representative of President Trump told attendees at the Three Seas Initiative meeting in Dubrovnik that the United States is committed to "energy addition" and projected a substantial rise in U.S. natural gas exports this year.
"What the world needs is more energy, not less energy," the representative said, adding: "We are all in, all in on energy, energy addition." He said U.S. export capacity for natural gas would grow "somewhere between 15 and 20 million tons of additional capacity" by the end of the year compared with the start of the year and added that the United States is "today and will continue to be by far the world's largest exporter of natural gas."
The remarks came during opening remarks at the Three Seas Initiative gathering in Dubrovnik, a regional forum of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The speaker framed the administration's approach as pragmatic and economic: building energy infrastructure, he said, makes "people's lives better, more prosperous, more opportunity rich, more secure." He listed uses for natural gas including data centers, manufacturing, electricity and home heating to illustrate demand.
The representative praised Croatia's Krk terminal as a "Croatian-American partnership," describing it as a sizable and expanding liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal and noting an oil import terminal that serves Croatia and neighboring states. "They're working from Bosnia-Herzegovina towards the south and all of Central and Eastern Europe to the north to bring energy together to these nations," he said, urging cross-border cooperation to build long-term partnerships.
He also criticized what he called a prior pause on building new U.S. export terminals, saying, "When President Trump was elected, crazy enough, this may sound crazy to say this here, we had decided to pause the building of any more natural gas export terminals in the United States." He framed those earlier policies as part of "energy subtraction" tied to "climate alarmism politics," language attributed to the speaker and presented as his characterization rather than an established fact.
The representative urged a broad, diversified energy portfolio, saying success in energy requires both geographic variety and multiple energy types and arguing that trade and interaction among nations are necessary to implement that approach.
He closed by expressing support for the Three Seas Initiative and looking forward to further meetings; applause followed his remarks. The speech did not include formal motions, votes or legally binding commitments recorded in the transcript.
