Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria have started demining in the Black Sea to help exports from Ukraine

Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria launched joint anti-mine operations in the Black Sea on July 1 to improve shipping safety and help Ukrainian grain exports.

This is reported by the Bloomberg agency.

The initiative under the banner of Istanbul is the first major joint action of the Black Sea countries after Russiaʼs full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It is aimed at neutralizing mines drifting in some areas of the Black Sea.

A few weeks earlier, on June 11, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania signed an agreement on demining the Black Sea.

At the initial stage, only ships of the countries participating in the initiative will participate in the anti-mine group. The mine threat will be eliminated exclusively in the territorial waters and economic zones of the participating countries.

• Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, the Romanian, Bulgarian and Turkish militaries have regularly defused mines drifting in their waters in the Black Sea. In October, Bloomberg wrote that the countries are discussing a joint project on demining the sea. The project itself is not a NATO operation.