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The states of the Black Sea are interested in the safe passage of their ships. Now the first stage of the construction of the Black Sea coalition of countries is being observed. At the second stage, it is possible to patrol the waters of the Black Sea by NATO ships. Political scientist, co-founder of the “National Platform for Stability and Cohesion” Oleg Sahakyan stated this today, October 11, on the air of FREEDOM TV channel.
According to him, now Russia cannot afford to attack ships directly. First, it would be a serious violation of international maritime law. “And in Russia now, and under its flags, its gray fleet for export travels across the seas and oceans. In case of a gross violation of the norms of maritime law, these ships can be blocked in the ports where they are, not allowed to the ports. This will hit Russia very seriously. Therefore, they have to act with indirect steps, such as: mining, hidden mining of corridors through which ships pass. Part of these corridors passes through the waters of Romania and Bulgaria. In particular, if we talk about the Ukrainian temporary export corridor, it runs along the Ukrainian coast and immediately enters the exclusive economic zone of these states,” said Sahakyan.
Therefore, the political scientist clarified, now the Black Sea states are at least interested in constantly monitoring the situation and carrying out preventive demining of these trade corridors.
“And secondly, of course, this is demining around so that the mines do not break off after the storm and do not swim closer to the shore, where they unknowingly enter the zone of possible damage to civilian and commercial ships. Therefore, this is the first step towards joint efforts in the Black Sea area of the Black Sea basin countries to guarantee security, primarily among NATO countries,” he believes. In the future, the political scientist predicts, this initiative will most likely expand at the expense of Ukraine, and possibly other countries of the Black Sea coast, which could join it in different ways.
“There are countries with access to the sea – this is Georgia, which has very seriously good relations with Turkey. But at the same time, Georgia is heavily influenced by Russia. Therefore, we put a question mark. There is also Moldova, which is landlocked but has a port on the Danube and some symbolic efforts are also possible. And there is Armenia, which is also landlocked, but at the same time it is part of the organization of the countries of the Black Sea Basin and also has some opportunities, at least symbolically, to join. That is, now, I think, we are seeing the first stage of building such a Black Sea coalition, when the Black Sea countries from among the NATO countries unite. In the future, it may be the Black Sea countries minus Russia in this association,” says Sahakyan.
He also commented on the information that the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, following the meeting with representatives of the Romanian authorities, announced the expansion of transport corridors and cooperation on food security.
