Romania Proposes Rotating NATO Command for Black Sea Security to Bulgaria

Romania has proposed that Bulgaria join it in asking NATO to establish a military command in the Black Sea, while Sofia and Bucharest are also preparing to seek a dedicated discussion of regional security at the upcoming EU summit following a series of drone and maritime incidents.

Romanian Defense Minister Radu Miruță announced the proposal after discussing it by phone with his Bulgarian counterpart. The plan calls for the command to be led on a rotating basis by NATO allies bordering the Black Sea, with its physical location also changing among participating countries, according to Romania’s national news agency.

Romania is ready to lead the new structure and host it on its Black Sea coast from 2028. Until then, Bucharest is willing to have the command operate from Turkey’s Black Sea coast, with Romanian and Bulgarian officers taking part, Miruță said.

He argued that incidents involving drones, sunken vessels and naval mines require a coordinated response, as threats to air and maritime security can no longer be treated as isolated national concerns. He also connected the growing risks to Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, which he said pose additional security threats to Romania and Bulgaria. The two countries have already agreed to cooperate.

In July 2024, Romania and Bulgaria signed a memorandum to establish a Regional Special Operations Component Command in the Black Sea region, known as HQ R-SOCC. Romania’s Ministry of National Defense says the structure is intended to coordinate Allied special operations and help strengthen the defense of NATO’s eastern flank. Miruță’s proposal on October 14 concerns a separate military command involving NATO members bordering the Black Sea.

Former Foreign Minister and current GERB lawmaker Daniel Mitov said Bulgaria was underestimating national security risks arising from Russian aggression in the Black Sea and that the government was not fully using consultation mechanisms available with NATO allies. He made the comments in an interview with BNT.

Mitov said the government needed to take a clear position on the Russian Federation’s responsibility and work to increase the presence and surveillance of allied forces in the region.

“This is not a matter of legal classification, but of assessing the level of threat to our national security. If we downplay incidents and fail to name the aggressor, they perceive weakness and will naturally encroach further and further into our security space,” Mitov said.

He criticized the cabinet for not requesting consultations under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Bulgaria could also have called on other NATO mechanisms, he said, including a North Atlantic Council meeting at the level of permanent representatives or a meeting of the Military Committee.

“You cannot simply send a letter and wait for the mechanisms to be triggered. You must initiate them yourself and clearly communicate your security concerns to your allies,” Mitov said.

He added that during GERB’s time in government, initial measures had been taken to improve counter-drone capabilities, including the procurement of systems for the Interior Ministry to protect strategic sites and the border.

Mitov also criticized the government’s diplomatic response toward Moscow. He said the Russian ambassador should have been summoned immediately after the initial attacks, rather than the issue being handled at the prime ministerial level, which he argued left less room for further diplomatic action if the situation worsened.

“Peace is not merely the absence of gunfire. Peace is a state in which aggression yields no benefits. The Russian Federation started this war, and the Russian Federation must bring it to an end,” Mitov said.

He warned that instability in the Black Sea was also carrying economic costs, with shipping insurance premiums rising fivefold in recent days. The increase would affect businesses and Bulgarian citizens, he said, and the government needed to take measures to limit the impact of the crisis.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria and Romania intend to request a separate agenda item on Black Sea security at the upcoming European Union summit. President Iliana Yotova announced the initiative after a telephone conversation with her Romanian counterpart.

The issue had initially been expected to form part of a broader discussion of the war in Ukraine, but the two countries are now seeking a dedicated debate in response to recent incidents.

“What we agreed upon is that, on behalf of both countries, both members of the European Union, there should be a special agenda item at the summit dedicated exclusively to the Black Sea,” Yotova said.

She noted that drone and vessel incidents had taken place in the economic zones of Romania and Turkey, with Turkey experiencing even more such cases. The Bulgarian and Romanian foreign ministries are preparing a joint document in two main sections, setting out the facts and threats to shipping and specifying what assistance the EU should provide for improved surveillance and investigations.

Bulgaria is also seeking technical assistance from the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA).

“We continue to believe that we can obtain the necessary equipment from EMSA... to enable a truly thorough investigation into the sunken vessel involved in the initial incidents - and, if possible, into the second incident that occurred two days ago,” Yotova said.

She said Bulgaria and Romania were primarily calling “for the cessation of all combat operations and the use of drones in the Black Sea.” France formally submitted the same request that day, following an initiative first proposed by the French president several weeks earlier.

Turkey has also been drawn into the diplomatic effort, with Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry already holding discussions with Turkish representatives. The aim is for Ankara to use its diplomatic channels to exert influence.

Yotova said the preferred approach would be to bring together all Black Sea littoral states, including the parties at war, for talks on regional security. “It is absolutely clear that the issue of safety in the Black Sea cannot be resolved without the participation of both those nations,” she said. She added that the diplomatic process would take time and require extensive technical work at different levels.

As the risks also affect people living along the coast, a national strategy is being developed to warn citizens and fishermen about dangerous floating objects. Yotova proposed considering the use of the BG-Alert system to notify the public when such debris is spotted in the Black Sea, particularly during the fishing season.

“Consideration should be given to ways of incorporating the BG-Alert system when such debris is spotted in the Black Sea, especially now, during the fishing season, as we must protect people at all costs,” she said.

Asked about the Navy’s response to recent incidents, Iotova praised the speed and courage of the personnel involved in rescue efforts. She said sailors who survived had been rescued within hours, while some crew members had died because the vessels sank very quickly. In her view, the incidents showed that Bulgarian services could respond effectively to emergencies.

Romanian authorities are also investigating a reported drone attack on a commercial vessel near Sulina in the Danube Delta. The ship, sailing under the flag of the Comoros, was reported to have been attacked in the Black Sea the previous night while in Romanian territorial waters. A fire broke out but was extinguished by the crew, and the Romanian Coast Guard conducted a rescue operation. All 17 sailors aboard were safe. The crew said a drone had struck the vessel.

The incident occurred about nine nautical miles southeast of the Sulina breakwater. The crew members were Syrian nationals, and the ship was reported to be carrying coal to Ukraine.

Shortly before the incident, a RO-ALERT warning was issued in eastern Galați County after two drones entered Romanian airspace. The incident was part of a series of attacks targeting Ukrainian Danube ports. The second drone was destroyed by Ukrainian air defenses near the port of Reni.

Miruță said authorities were checking whether the vessel had been hit by a drone. He said the ministry was notified by radio at 8:23 p.m. that a fire had broken out, prompting the dispatch of a vessel to assist.

“Shortly thereafter, they reported that the fire had been extinguished, that they did not require support, and that they did not wish to enter a port. The vessel sent to assist returned, as there was no longer a fire on board, and neither the crew nor the ship itself were in any danger,” Miruță said.

The minister added that the ship had been empty and had remained in the area for several days. The possibility that it had been struck by a drone was still under investigation, he said, adding that the Defense Ministry’s radar systems had not detected a drone approaching the vessel. He described incidents of this kind in Romanian territorial waters as extremely serious.

Miruță said the vessel would head to the port of Constanța, where authorities would determine whether it had been hit by a drone.

In a separate incident, eight sailors were reported missing and four rescued after a fire aboard the Wide Trader, a merchant ship sailing under the flag of San Marino. The fire broke out on the vessel’s bridge about 13 nautical miles off Sulina, according to a representative of the Romanian Naval Authority.

The authority’s maritime coordination center launched an emergency search-and-rescue operation, deploying specialized maritime and aerial resources to assist and search for the missing crew members.

Romania also scrambled fighter jets after radar systems detected several drones overnight near Ukraine’s Snake Island in the Black Sea, BTA correspondent Martina Gancheva reported from Romania.

One drone entered Romanian airspace for about a minute before disappearing from radar at 1:34 a.m. local time, southeast of Sulina over Romanian territorial waters, according to the report.

Two F-18 fighter jets from the Spanish Air and Space Force, serving under the Enhanced Air Policing mission, took off from the 57th Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base to monitor the situation. After other aerial targets were detected about 77 kilometers east of Snake Island, two Romanian Air Force F-16s stationed at the 86th Fetești Air Base were also scrambled.

Residents in northern and eastern Tulcea County received a RO-ALERT warning at 4:57 a.m. No further violations of Romanian airspace were reported, and the air alert was lifted at 5:46 a.m. On Wednesday afternoon, Romania’s Defense Ministry radar surveillance system had detected an aerial target in the same area.