Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria will sign a joint agreement in January 2024 to counter the mine threat in the Black Sea, Turkish National Defense Minister Yashar Güler said, TRTHaber reported on Saturday, December 16.
“Within the framework of the Trilateral Initiative, launched under the leadership of our country against the mine threat in the Black Sea, on November 22-23, we held the third round of the meeting of the Task Force on Mine Action in the Black Sea, hosted by our ministry. We are also planning to hold a signing ceremony in Istanbul on January 11, 2024, with the participation of the defense ministers of the three countries,” said Yasar Güler.
The minister emphasized that Turkey responsibly and impartially implements the Montreux Straits Convention, which ensures balance in the Black Sea, and is determined to continue to do so.
EU Diplomacy Chief Josep Borrell says the events in Ukraine threaten global food security, and the EU will discuss with the UN Secretary General the prospect of reviving the “grain deal”.
“This affects all countries, but especially the weakest and poorest. In August 2022, the UN played a crucial role in mitigating this suffering through the Black Sea Grain Initiative. However, in July, Russia decided to abandon this agreement,” Borrell wrote in his blog post, looking ahead to the UN General Assembly’s High Level Week that opens in New York.
“We will discuss with UN Secretary General Guterres ways and means to revive it. Sustainable development goals are in the focus of the UNGA,” said the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said that a feasibility study (feasibility study) of the project of laying a power transmission line along the bottom of the Black Sea, which envisages supplying “green” energy from Azerbaijan to Europe via Georgia, will be submitted by November.
“In December last year, an agreement was signed between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania, certified by the European Commission, on the construction of an integrated “green” power transmission line from Azerbaijan to Europe along the bottom of the Black Sea. The work on the feasibility study has already started. We expect it to be presented probably in September-October,” Aliyev said in Shusha.
On December 17, 2022, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed a strategic partnership agreement in Bucharest on the construction of Black Sea Energy submarine electric cable with a capacity of 1,000 MW and a length of 1,195 km. The cable will be designed to supply “green” electricity generated in Azerbaijan through Georgia and the Black Sea to Romania for subsequent transportation to Hungary and the rest of Europe.
In June, it was decided that Bulgaria would join the project.
The laying of the cable will take 3-4 years.
The European Commission plans to provide 2.3 billion euros for laying the cable, which will be the longest in the world.
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary have signed an agreement on laying a submarine electric cable under the Black Sea to supply Azerbaijani energy to Europe.
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission (EC), considers the Black Sea electricity cable project, which will supply Azerbaijan with electricity to Europe, ambitious.
“I can only say: what an ambitious project (of the Black Sea electric cable). It will connect us on both sides of the Black Sea and go further toward the Caspian Sea – both for digital communications and energy,” von der Leyen said Saturday at a signing ceremony in Bucharest for the “Strategic Partnership Agreement on the Development and Transmission of Green Energy between the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary.”
She said the implementation of the agreements will help the European Union strengthen security of supply by transmitting electricity from renewable sources to the EU through Romania and Hungary. “A cable under the Black Sea could supply electricity to our neighbors in Moldova and the Western Balkans and, of course, to Ukraine,” the EC head said.
According to EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Oliver Varghea, an agreement between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary on a submarine cable for electricity transmission via the Black Sea (Black Sea Energy) was signed as part of a EUR 17 billion European investment plan.
The nearly 1,200-kilometer cable will transmit electricity from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania and Hungary. The project is to be implemented within six years.
The profile ministries of Ukraine and Lithuania have agreed to launch a pilot project to develop multimodal transportation between the countries, according to the website of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine on Thursday.
In Klaipeda, Lithuania, a meeting was held between Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov and Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania Marius Skuodis, during which the parties discussed issues of strengthening cooperation and prospects for new projects.
“Partnership in the field of transport is one of the priorities. We are restoring a dialogue on the implementation of an old idea – connecting the Baltic and Black Sea regions by rail. For both countries this is a chance to optimize logistics, increase the load on seaports and enter new world markets. We have already agreed to launch a pilot project, within the framework of which we will develop multimodal traffic between countries, including by increasing the flow of semi-trailers,” Kubrakov is quoted as saying.
He also noted the relevance of the resumption of the passenger railway route “four capitals” from Kyiv to Riga.
According to the Ministry of Infrastructure, there are currently large cargo flows between the Baltic and Black Sea regions, but the share of cargo moving from Ukraine is very low. At Klaipeda seaport, Ukrainian cargo accounts for only about 1-2% of all cargo. At the same time, according to the estimates of the Lithuanian side, the flow of goods from Ukraine could potentially be 10 times higher.
“For the implementation of multimodal cargo transportation by sea and rail, road semi-trailers will also be used as intermodal transport units. To make this possible, the ministry will initiate amendments to Ukrainian legislation, which will allow semi-trailers to be classified as cargo, and not as a vehicle,” the report said.
The launch of the pilot project is planned for September this year.
The successful implementation of the agreement, as noted in the Ministry of Infrastructure, has the potential to make Klaipeda seaport in Lithuania the northern gateway of Ukraine to Scandinavia and at the same time Odesa – the southern sea gate of Lithuania to the Black Sea region.
BALTIC STATES, BLACK SEA, DEVELOPMENT, LITHUANIA, TRANSPORTATION