The Minister of Defense talks about the danger that currently exists in the Black Sea due to the war in Ukraine, and this is due to the mines that have detached from the coastal area of Ukraine and are drifting through the Black Sea, the vast majority in the territorial waters of neighbors, others in international waters.
The Minister of Defense also talks about another major problem, because in the last 3 months the maritime area around our country has been invaded by Russian ships that have blocked international commercial traffic in the area.
"Some mines came off at one point, some may be drifting on the surface of the Black Sea, but ultimately it is about the demining of the entire shores of the Black Sea, of all the areas that were mined. You will realize that only a few came off, maybe only 5% came off, but the rest are there, and they are even more difficult to mine, because special operations are needed.
You will realize that those are placed in a security system, and you must review, intuit that system, and then start the systematic demining. This is about many people. When it comes to the ones that float, there is only one that floats, it is much easier to mine it, but when it comes to a system there, many interventions will probably be needed.
At this moment, we cannot in other waters, because we are a NATO country, we have an integrated army in NATO, and at this moment we can only do it in our waters, or in international waters, if we want to do something together, but we can't in a theater of operations, now it is a theater of war, it would mean intervention, and NATO does not allow such an intervention.
In Romania, it is also a danger for navigation, and here it is very important because in a way the Black Sea was blocked. We discussed several times in our committees, including the European foreign affairs committee, we discussed the fact that at this moment the Black Sea is blocked.
In many situations, Russian ships attack any vessel that approaches the area of Ukraine, and obviously they have blocked many trade routes that were in the Black Sea. Of course, there is a broader discussion here, I discussed this with several NATO colleagues, certainly more informally, but the Black Sea should be returned to the international commercial circuit."
