Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has sought to dispel concerns that Bulgaria might join a regional naval force with Romania and Turkey meant to counter Russia in the Black Sea.

Bulgaria has always defended the idea of enhanced military trainings across the Black Sea, but only under the flag of NATO, Mitov told reporters on Saturday, according to public radio broadcaster BNR.

There has been a debate within NATO for a long time about the format of enhanced NATO presence in the Black Sea but no concrete decisions have been made yet, Mitov said.

Bulgaria has made no commitments to taking part in any regional formats related to NATO's naval presence in the Black Sea, Mitov added.

“As you know, naval ships of non-Black Sea countries may stay in the Black Sea up to 21 days under the Montreux Convention. Turkey is very strongly tied to this convention and we see no opportunity at present to drop the restrictions [of the convention], so we have made no additional commitments in this respect,” Mitov said.

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