The military drone that crashed this week may not be the only thing the United States is missing in the Black Sea right now. The incident with the Russian jets also raised a key security question for Washington and its allies: whether there is a clear strategy for such a vital waterway, which has long been at the center of rivalry between Moscow and the West and could now become a major problem. spot?, writes NBC News in an analysis that shows that one of the obstacles is the fact that it is difficult to get Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey to work as the Baltic states with a single voice.

This week’s dramatic encounter between a US drone and Russian fighter jets underscored the importance of the reservoir, which is at the heart of the war in Ukraine and has long effectively been at the center of a rivalry between Moscow and the West. Could this body of water become a major hot spot?

Lawmakers and former military officials interviewed by NBC News said the response is particularly worrisome because an agreement that allows grain to leave several Ukrainian Black Sea ports is now in a precarious balance and the Russian navy is using the area as a launch pad for attacks on Ukrainian cities. .

Described by some as a “potential powder keg”, the Black Sea is slightly larger than California and is bordered by six countries: NATO members Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Georgia and Ukraine, which are considered US partners but are not part of the alliance. .And then there is Russia.

At one point, the US helped allies balance Russia’s presence in the Black Sea and conducted exercises there, but the Biden administration withdrew US ships from the area when it became clear that the Russians were preparing to invade Ukraine.

Turkey does not allow warships through the Bosphorus

Turkey now prevents warships from entering the sea through the Bosphorus, which it controls and can close in time of war. That means the U.S. has no means of retrieving the drone, which the U.S. said it shot down in the Black Sea on Tuesday after a Russian fighter jet collided with it.

“This indicates a lack of a comprehensive approach to the region, which is important not only to our allies and countries bordering the Black Sea, but also to the security of the United States,” US Senator Jeanne Shaheen told NBC News, stressing that America has shrunk. military role in the region.

The United States has no ship in the area to retrieve the drone wreckage, and the only NATO ally that borders the Black Sea and has a navy powerful enough to potentially come close to the crash site is Turkey, which has tried to remain relatively friendly with Moscow in the wars with Ukraine.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Wednesday that there probably isn’t much to rebuild. According to him, the drone sank in an area where the depth reaches up to 1,000 meters, and the US military ensured that the databases were deleted.

Russia has accused the US of a confrontation, denying that its plane came into contact with the drone and accusing Washington of provocation by conducting aerial surveillance near Russian airspace.

Moscow’s presence in the Black Sea

Vladimir Putin has made expanding Moscow’s presence in the Black Sea a priority, annexed the Crimean peninsula – the historic base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and a cornerstone of the Kremlin’s ability to extend its power throughout the region – and has long meddled in neighboring countries. , such as Georgia.

Sen. Shahin, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Europe and Regional Security Cooperation, and others say this week’s drone incident underscored the need for the U.S. to define its approach to protecting the Black Sea.

The drone incident prompted Shaheen, a Democratic senator who visited a NATO airbase in Romania last month, to re-introduce a bill with Sen. Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, that would require the Biden administration to develop a 180-day strategy involving several agencies to deepen US economic and military ties with countries in the region.

“It was of great interest on both sides because the war in Ukraine, this drone incident and what’s happening with the sea lanes has made it very clear how important the region is,” Senator Shahin said. “And most of the countries bordering the Black Sea are our allies, and now it is important to show how we support our allies,” she said.

The State Department and the National Security Council did not respond to NBC’s request for comment.

“There is no NATO on this flank because of the weakness of Bulgaria and Romania”

Former national security officials who worked in the region told NBC News that the level of US and NATO investment in the Black Sea is not commensurate with its strategic importance. They said that, despite NATO’s rhetoric, Western activity in the region began to decline after Moscow seized Crimea.

Glen Grant, a former British officer who worked as a military instructor and consultant for Ukraine and Bulgaria, said the Black Sea was a particularly weak spot for NATO’s eastern flank.

“There is no NATO on this flank because of the weakness of Bulgaria and Romania and the intransigence of Turkey,” he said. “That’s why you don’t have a NATO presence in the Black Sea,” the Briton explained.

A NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, emphasized that the Black Sea region is of “strategic importance” to the alliance, noting that its members have increased NATO’s presence in response to the Kremlin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and its large-scale invasion. of Ukraine last year.

The official said NATO has carried out larger air surveillance missions in Romania and Bulgaria, deployed more air and missile defense systems in Romania and Turkey and deployed new battle groups to the region.

“We must rely on three NATO allies”

Stephen Horrell, a former US naval intelligence officer who studies the region for the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), a Washington think tank, says that Turkey, which is NATO’s southern bastion and has one of the strongest armies in the alliance, “must be in the center” of any strategy regarding the Black Sea. The United States must find a way to make Turkey a more reliable partner, he said, and Washington is also developing closer ties with countries such as Romania and Bulgaria.

At least there appears to be some progress toward greater cooperation, as the presidents of Romania and Bulgaria met in Sofia on Wednesday and signed an agreement to strengthen ties, NBC News reported.

“We have to rely on the three NATO allies (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey) and the Black Sea states to take the initiative,” Horrell said.

“It is a challenge for the three to unite in one voice, as, for example, the Baltic countries have done,” the analyst emphasizes.

The foreign ministries of Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey did not respond to requests for comment for this article, NBC News reported.

All eyes are on the Black Sea

Looming over all of this is the grain deal, which expires on Sunday. The agreement, brokered by Turkey and the UN, allowed Ukraine – one of the world’s largest exporters of grain, sunflower oil, wheat and corn – to stabilize world markets and ensure global food security. It also brought much-needed cash to the country as it battles Russian invasion.

However, during the process of renewing the agreement, Russia tried to push for more concessions and cut the pact from 120 days to 60, raising fears that the agreement could be sabotaged.

Visiting the United Nations logistics warehouse in Addis Ababa, where some of the Ukrainian wheat that arrived in the capital of Ethiopia is stored, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said on Wednesday that it is extremely important to continue the agreement.

“We can see the impact if that doesn’t happen because it literally means that what you see right here is not going to make it to a lot of other places,” Blinken told reporters.

Therefore, concludes NBC News, it seems that all eyes will remain on the Black Sea for some time. (news.ro)