BLACK SEA: PRODUCTIVE TURKEY-ROMANIA-BULGARIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANKARA 003694 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2016 TAGS: PREL MOPS MARR NATO TU BU RO SUBJECT: BLACK SEA: PRODUCTIVE TURKEY-ROMANIA-BULGARIA TRILATERAL MEETING REF: STATE 79658 Classified By: Pol-Mil Counselor Timothy A. Betts for reasons 1.4 (b) a nd (d). ¶1. (C/REL USA, GBR, AUS, CAN) Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria held a "productive and fruitful" trilateral meeting on Black Sea maritime security issues June 19, according to MFA DDG for Multilateral Security Affairs Serdar Kilic. Romania presented a paper on NATO and broader international community involvement in the region. Participants agreed to share it with other littoral states to generate a broad discussion of the topic sometime after the Riga NATO summit in November. ¶2. (C/REL USA, GBR, AUS, CAN) On Turkey's maritime interdiction operation, Black Sea Harmony (OBSH),Turkey invited Romanian experts to Turkey to discuss their nation's participation. Even Bulgaria is showing progress, he said. He understood that the Bulgarian Defense Ministry had recommended to the GOB MFA that Sofia agree to participate in OBSH. Kilic credited USG efforts for the more positive approach by both Romania and Bulgaria towards OBSH. The three delegations agreed to hold another round of trilateral talks in Turkey in late July. ¶3. (C/REL USA, GBR, AUS, CAN) Romania proposed a meeting of the BLACKSEAFOR special representatives for September 4, but subsequently agreed that an experts meeting in early September and a special representatives gathering later that month made more sense, Kilic reported. Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/ankara/ WILSON