Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey signed Black Sea demining agreement

Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey on January 11 signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a Mine Countermeasures Naval Group in the Black Sea.

Deputy Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov, Turkish Defence Minister Yashar Guler and their Romanian counterpart Angel Tulvar signed the MoU in Istanbul.

The decision to approve the Memorandum on the Bulgarian side was taken at a government meeting on 13 December last year.

The establishment of the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Naval Group was initiated by Turkey in August 2023 with the aim of ensuring the safety of shipping lanes in the Black Sea in terms of mine countermeasures and countering the mine threat that has emerged since the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine.

The naval group 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.

Initially, the participation of mine countermeasures ships is foreseen only for the three Black Sea allies. Actions will primarily be conducted in the territorial waters and exclusive economic zones of the participating countries to eliminate the mining threat, the Ministry of Defence stressed.

The executive body for decision-making, management, consultation and overall direction of the conduct of mine action operations will be the Black Sea Mine Action Group Committee, consisting of the Chiefs of Navies of the three participating countries. On the basis of its decisions, a schedule of operations in specific areas will be drawn up, indicating the forces planned to participate for the respective period of activation of the group (no more than 4 periods of 15 days each per calendar year).