On 11 January in Istanbul, Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania will sign an intergovernmental Memorandum of Understanding on the establishment of a Mine Countermeasures Maritime Group in the Black Sea (MCM Black Sea).
Bulgaria's Deputy Defence Minister Atanas Zapryanov travelled to Turkey for the purpose.
The decision to approve the Memorandum on the Bulgarian side was taken at a government meeting on 13 December 2023.
The main task of the agreement is to ensure the safety of the sea lanes in the Black Sea in terms of mine countermeasures and countering the mining threat that arose after the start of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The activities of the MCM Black Sea are entirely peaceful in nature and are not directed against any other country. 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.
Floating mines in the Black Sea pose a significant danger to merchant ships, especially those carrying Ukrainian grain from Odessa, necessitating their removal. The establishment of the task force can effectively neutralise the threat.
The Black Sea states of Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria met with officials from Georgia, Poland and Ukraine back in April 2022 to discuss the clearance of mines following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Defense ministers from the three countries also held talks on the plan at a NATO meeting in Brussels last October and in Ankara in November as they worked to finalize the initiative.
Sofia, Ankara and Bucharest are seeking to bring other NATO countries into the agreement at a later stage. / BGNES
