SOFIA, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Bulgaria has approved the purchase of seven minehunter ships from Belgium and the Netherlands, as the NATO \u200calliance seeks to bolster its capabilities to clear naval mines \u200cand secure shipping routes in the Black Sea, local media reported on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Along with \u200bRomania and Turkey, Bulgaria agreed at a NATO summit in July to expand a joint task force that clears mines floating in the Black Sea to include missions to protect critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
The three NATO states, which share the \u200cBlack Sea with Georgia, \u2060Russia and Ukraine, formed the de-mining task force in 2024 to counter the threat of floating mines after Moscow’s \u2060invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
Under a sale agreement with the Netherlands approved by the Bulgarian parliament on Wednesday, Bulgaria will receive three ships equipped to \u200bseek and \u200bdestroy mines and mine-like objects, while \u200ba separate transfer agreement between \u200cBelgium, the Netherlands and Bulgaria covers another four vessels.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands has committed to restoring the technical capabilities and increasing the operational capacity of three ships before transferring ownership, with Bulgaria paying for repair and restoration work to bring all seven vessels to NATO operational readiness standards.<\/p>\n
“These mine hunters are \u200cparticularly necessary. We have three of the \u200bsame type, and with these seven we \u200bwill complement and further enhance \u200bour capabilities,” Defence Minister Dimitar Stoyanov said before lawmakers \u200capproved the deal.<\/p>\n
“Bulgaria is part of \u200bthe mine countermeasures \u200bgroup established together with our colleagues from Turkey and Romania, and it is working in excellent coordination to clear the maritime areas \u200bof the three countries.”<\/p>\n
A \u200cmemorandum of understanding covering the acquisition also includes crew training, \u200bspare parts and additional equipment.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Alex Lefkowitz; Writing by \u200bAngeliki Koutantou; editing by Barbara Lewis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOFIA, Aug 27 (Reuters) – Bulgaria has approved the purchase of seven minehunter ships from Belgium and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,10030,15745,314,451,18643,18642,180],"class_list":["post-34684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-and-the-netherlands","tag-black-sea","tag-bulgaria","tag-nato","tag-naval-mines","tag-technical-capabilities","tag-the-netherlands"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117167747647330176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}