The Black Sea Naval Force (also known as BLACKSEAFOR or the Black Sea Naval Cooperation Task Group) is a

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

naval cooperation program established in 2001 on the initiative of

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

with the participation of

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

and Georgia.

History

The original purpose of BLACKSEAFOR was "to cooperatively promote security and stability in the Black Sea

maritime Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

area and beyond, strengthen friendship and good neighborly relations among the regional States, and increase interoperability among those states'

naval A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

forces". The BLACKSEAFOR has conducted several joint naval drills since its formation, however it has been suspended several times. The 2008 Russo-Georgian war lead Georgia to suspend its involvement in BLACKSEAFOR drills and Russia to refuse to take part in drills involving Georgia. The partnership was effectively suspended in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea and War in Donbas. In 2015, after a Russian plane was shot down by Turkish forces, Russia suspended its BLACKSEAFOR membership.

History

See also

References

Further reading