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Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned Thursday that the Russia-Ukraine war must not be allowed to turn the Black Sea into a new conflict front, citing rising attacks on civilian vessels and risks to navigation and food security.
“We must never allow the Black Sea to turn into a new front of conflict,” Fidan said at a joint news conference in Ankara with Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Anita Orban.
Fidan said Europe’s security could not be considered separately from Türkiye’s security, capabilities, and capacities.
“Before permanent approaches are adopted in security policies, discussions must be conducted in a qualified manner. Otherwise, it may be too late,” he said.
He said the war between Russia and Ukraine remained one of the main threats to regional and global stability.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have worked hard to prevent it from spreading to the Black Sea,” Fidan said, citing Türkiye’s “meticulous” implementation of the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits and the Black Sea Grain Initiative as examples of that approach.
Fidan said the war was now spreading to the Black Sea, with rising attacks on civilian vessels posing serious threats to life, property, navigation and environmental safety.
“As regional countries and the international community, we must never allow the Black Sea to turn into a new conflict front,” he said.
He said Ankara was conveying its assessments and warnings on the issue to both sides.
“The efforts of the two countries to gain military superiority over each other are seriously affecting navigation safety in the Black Sea,” Fidan said.
He added that Turkish-flagged, Turkish-owned, and Turkish-crewed vessels were also being affected.
“We are doing everything we can to end this situation,” he said.
Fidan said the attacks were not only harming personnel and vessels but also creating food security risks, especially when grain shipments fail to reach international markets.
“We need to prevent this situation,” he said.
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Fidan also said Türkiye had completed preparations to submit the Mecca defense agreement to parliament for approval, stressing that the pact is defensive in nature.
“The necessary work for the agreement to be submitted to parliament has been completed,” he said.
Fidan said the agreement provides for mutual defense if one of its signatories comes under attack.
“Once a country that is a party to the agreement is attacked, you stand by it for its defense. This is not an attack agreement,” he said.
He also clarified that the pact does not authorize Türkiye to deploy troops to another country’s territory to carry out an attack.
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