The Romanian Minister of Defense, Radu Miruta, has proposed the creation of a "joint military command of the NATO coastal states" of the Black Sea —Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey— in response to the recent "incidents" recorded in the area, among which he mentioned "drones, sunken ships, and naval mines."
"The Black Sea needs a joint military command of the NATO coastal states, and for that, we must take steps in that direction," Miruta pointed out in a social media post, in which he explained that he has already conveyed this proposal to his Bulgarian counterpart, Dimitar Stoyanov, during a phone conversation.
As he detailed, he suggested to Stoyanov "to sign a joint letter addressed to the NATO leadership" in which both ministers express their governments' position "regarding the creation of such a command, with rotation among all coastal countries both in terms of its location and its leadership."
Miruta emphasized that "Romania is willing to take command and host the structure on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea starting in 2028. Until then, we accept that it develops its activity on the Turkish coast of the Black Sea, with the participation of Romanian and Bulgarian officers."
The Defense Minister also stressed that "the incidents in the Black Sea (...) compel" the coastal countries "to act, not to wait," and reiterated that Bucharest "is determined to protect its security and economic interests in the Black Sea, fully respecting International Law."
In the same vein, he warned that "the recent events confirm that incidents with drones in the airspace and in the maritime domain can no longer be treated as isolated national problems," and denounced that "the repeated attacks by Russia against Ukrainian infrastructure have generated collateral security risks for the authorities and the population of our countries and seem to aim at testing the national and allied response capacity."
These statements came just hours before the captain of a vessel anchored in Romanian territorial waters alerted to a supposed drone attack, which would be the first of its kind in the area, although not the first case of drone detection in Romanian airspace.
For now, Miruta has chosen not to confirm or deny the captain's account of the drone, although the Ministry of Defense has communicated the detection of "two aerial targets," which led to the takeoff of two Spanish fighters deployed in the NATO Air Policing mission.