Turkey would reject any US request to deploy nuclear submarines in the Black Sea, over which it serves as a guardian, international law analyst Hakan Erkiner was on August 3 cited as saying by Prensa Latina, with reference to remarks made to Turkish media.
US President Donald Trump on August 1 said he had ordered the deployment of two nuclear submarines “in appropriate regions” following an escalating social media confrontation with Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev over Ukraine and sanctions.
The Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, via which vessels sail to or from the Black Sea, come under the 1936 Montreux Convention regarding the Regime of the Straits. It gives Ankara the power to restrict the straits transit of military vessels.
Erkiner was reported as noting that the convention prohibits the presence of atomic weapon-bearing submarines and surface vessels carrying nuclear weapons, with no defined deadlines, in relation to the straits.
Since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine, Ankara has closed off access to the straits to warships that do not have a home port on the Black Sea coast.
Though a Nato member, Turkey officially remains neutral as regards the war, attempting to maintain good relations with both Ukraine and Russia, both of which are Black Sea neighbours.
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