site.btaBulgaria to Assume Command of Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Group

In the next six months, Bulgaria will assume command of the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Group (MCM BLACK SEA), the Defence Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

A meeting of the MCM BLACK SEA Committee and a ceremony to transfer command from Turkiye to Bulgaria will take place Wednseday at the Bulgarian Navy Headquarters in Varna. Bulgaria will lead the group for the following six months, until July 2, when the command will pass to Romania.

The principle of rotational command is established in the memorandum that created the group, signed at the beginning of 2024. The MCM BLACK SEA Committee, consisting of the Navy commanders of the participating countries, is responsible for developing comprehensive guidelines to ensure the Group's effective operation.

During Wednesday's meeting in Varna, a review of the Group's activities under Turkish command during the three activations conducted between July 2, 2024, and January 2, 2025, will take place. Issues and proposals aimed at improving the Group's effectiveness for the next 12 months, six of which will be under Bulgarian command, will also be discussed, the press release further said.

At a ceremony held in early July 2024, attended by the Navy commanders of Bulgaria, Romania, and Turkiye, the first activation of the Black Sea Naval Mine Countermeasures Group was launched.

At end-2024, Romania's Defence Minister invited the United Kingdom to join the Black Sea Mine Countermeasures Task Group.

In a comment in early August 2024, Bulgarian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Kiril Mihaylov stated that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the Bulgarian Navy had received over 60 alerts of mine-like objects or drifting sea mines. Six mines have been disarmed, and over 30 fragments of missile weaponry have been found and recovered from the water, he explained.