site.btaTurkiye's Foreign Minister: We Will Continue to Comply Strictly with Montreux Convention

Emerging from a meeting with his Romanian counterpart Luminita Odobescu in Bucharest on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that Turkiye will continue to comply strictly with the Montreux Convention regulating maritime traffic through the Turkish Straits and will not make any concessions on this matter.

The two diplomats made joint statements at the Foreign Ministry in the Romanian capital, which were live-streamed on Facebook and Youtube.

"We discussed regional issues such as Black Sea security. As you know, the Montreux Convention continues to provide a guarantee for the security of this area. We continue to comply strictly with the Convention,” Hakan said, adding that any revisions are out of the question.

Turkiye has repeatedly stated that it strictly complies with the Montreux Convention. On the basis of Article 19 of the document, following the outbreak of Russia’s war against Ukraine, Turkiye closed the Dardanelles and Bosphorus straits to military vessels of nations party to the conflict, as well as to non-coastal states, so as to prevent further surge in tension in the Black Sea.

The Montreux Convention was signed on July 20, 1936, and entered into force on November 9, 1936. It granted Turkiye sovereignty over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits, transferring to it the functions of monitoring and controlling the passage of ships. The Convention also regulates the passage of warships, while civilian ships of all countries retain freedom of passage through the straits both in peacetime and wartime.