Istanbul (AFP) – NATO members Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania will sign this week a preliminary agreement on demining the Black Sea, officials said on Wednesday.
The Russian navy mined Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline in the early stages of its invasion last year.
Some of the mines have since washed up in the Black Sea waters of the three NATO member states, endangering shipping and complicating Ukraine’s efforts to break through the Russian naval blockade.
Top defence officials from Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania will sign a memorandum of understanding in Istanbul on Thursday establishing Mine Countermeasures Naval Group in the Black Sea (MCM Black Sea), which will oversee the demining mission’s operations, officials from the three countries said.
« MCM Black Sea’s activities are entirely peaceful in nature and are not directed against any other country, » the Bulgarian defence ministry said.
« It is expected to help improve interaction and good neighbourly relations between the participants, without replacing NATO’s presence and ongoing deterrence and defence activities in the Black Sea area. »
The Romanian defence ministry said the initiative will have a rotating command structure and « contribute to strengthening the allied posture of deterrence and defence of the eastern flank. »
Neither Russia nor Ukraine immediately commented on the announcement.
Turkey controls Black Sea maritime and naval traffic, which must pass Istanbul’s Bosphorus Strait and the Dardanelles before reaching the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.
With the outbreak of war, Turkey invoked a clause of an international treaty called the Montreux Convention banning the passage of naval vessels from non-literal countries to and from the Black Sea.
The measure prevented Britain from following through on plans last month to send two mine hunting ships into the region to help Ukraine’s efforts to export its grain.