Turkey plans to expand its navigation control system in the Black Sea

Ankara plans to expand the operation of its navigation safety control system in the Black Sea. This was announced on December 23 by Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu on the NTV channel.

According to him, the Turkish authorities are making serious efforts in the field of shipping safety.

"We control the passage of ships through all the straits where our navigation monitoring system operates both in the Dardanelles Strait and on the Bosphorus. <...> We plan to extend this system to the Black Sea," the minister said.

He added that the authorities plan to urgently implement this system in the Eastern Mediterranean to better control the situation in the area from Mersin to Cyprus.

Military reactivity: Russia records an increase in the militarization of the Black Sea due to NATO and the EU

What is the West trying to achieve and how can a direct clash be avoided?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on December 16 that attacks on ships in the Black Sea pose a threat to the safety of navigation. According to Erdogan, such attacks "do not bring any benefit to anyone."

On December 13, the Turkish Foreign Ministry called for an end to attacks on port infrastructure in the framework of the Ukrainian conflict. Erdogan, in turn, noted that the Black Sea should not become a place to settle scores in the context of the conflict in Ukraine.

Prior to that, on December 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attacks on tankers in the Black Sea piracy. He stressed that Russia, in response to such actions, would expand the range of attacks on Ukrainian ports and ships that enter them.

All important news is on the Izvestia channel in the MAX messenger.