Cooperation for demining transport routes in the western Black Sea

Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria will sign in the next few days an agreement on the establishment of a joint force, which will aim to remove sea mines that reach the territorial waters of the three NATO countries that have access to the Black Sea, it was announced at the end of last week , the Ministry of Defense in Ankara, which also provided the date of initialling of this agreement: January 10-11.

The announcement of the Turkish Ministry of Defense was also confirmed by Todor Tagarev, the Bulgarian Minister of Defense, who mentioned that in order to reduce the risks regarding the security of maritime transport, the naval forces of the three coastal countries will participate in the removal of Ukrainian and Russian mines that reach their own territorial waters.

We mention that Ziarul BURSA announced since the beginning of last month, about the agreement that will be concluded in the next few days.

The issue of Ukrainian and Russian sea mines reaching the Black Sea shipping routes arose after the Russian Federation launched illegal aggression in Ukraine, when combatant naval forces decided to mine several perimeters in the Crimea area and near the port of Odesa and Insula Snakes. Following the storms of 2022-2023, part of the respective mines broke off and drifted, reaching both the immediate vicinity of the Romanian coast - we recall here the explosion of a mine in front of the Forum hotel in Costineşti - and in the path military or cargo ships.

Recently, during the international conference "Reconstruction of Ukraine and the strategic role of Romania", which took place in Sinaia in mid-December, Admiral Vergil Chiţac, the mayor of Constanţa, said that the mines that are drifting in the Black Sea are not only Ukrainian mines blown up by storms, but there are also mines that were dropped into the Black Sea by helicopters belonging to the army of the Russian Federation.

Vergil Chiţac stated: "From the information I have at the moment, I say that so far 82 sea mines have been neutralized in the Black Sea, of which 67 are from the Ukrainian area. I refuse to believe that these 67 mines were Ukrainian ones detached from the dams that the Ukrainians made at the entrance to Odessa. They were certainly launched by the Russians, either from Crimea or from helicopters."

During the same event that took place in Sinaia, Admiral Liviu Coman stated that the drifting sea mines that are on the trade routes represent the main problem in the Black Sea basin, but he specified that, following the efforts made by the Romanian naval forces to ensure the security of maritime traffic , more than 1000 commercial ships transited the exclusive economic zone of the Black Sea by the end of last year and transported more than 33 million tons of grain from Ukraine.

We also point out that the authorities in Ankara recently refused to allow access to the Black Sea for two British mine detection and destruction ships intended for the Ukrainian naval forces. The reason cited by Turkey is that the definitive entry of the two warships into the Black Sea violates the Montreux Convention, which provides for strict rules for crossing the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits during wartime.