Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria to sign an agreement on joint demining of the Black Sea

Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria plan to sign an agreement in January on joint actions to remove mines that have been laid in the Black Sea as a result of the war in Ukraine.

Turkish Defense Minister Yashar Guler said this after months of negotiations between the NATO allies, Reuters reports.

Representatives of Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria met with officials from Georgia, Poland, and Ukraine in April 2022 to discuss demining. The three countries’ defense ministers also held talks on the demining plan at a NATO meeting in Brussels in October and in Ankara last month.

Speaking to reporters at the Ankara meeting, Minister Güler said that the “Trilateral Initiative” will now include only Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, with a signing ceremony in Istanbul scheduled for January 11.

“Because of the Ukrainian-Russian war, there are mines in both Ukrainian and Russian ports. Sometimes they are detonated and reach our straits downstream… Our demining ships will carry out constant patrols up to the line of the (sea) border of Romania,” Güler said.

As reported, the joint demining forces of Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania will not be considered a NATO operation, but will be the first major joint action of the Black Sea countries after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Tags: Romania, Black Sea grain corridor, Bulgaria, Turkey