Black Sea and the Turkish Straits: drone strikes hit merchant shipping
The Black Sea, shared by six coastal States and linked to the Mediterranean only through the Turkish Straits, has seen drone strikes on merchant ships off Bulgaria and Romania since early October 2026; two sank off Bulgaria. Bulgaria says it lacks clear evidence of who attacked. On 16 October it formally asked NATO for combat aircraft and anti-drone systems.
Syllabus: Prelims · Geography; GS1 · World Physical Geography; GS2 · Foreign Policies & the Diaspora
Why this matters for UPSC
GS1 world geography and GS2 international relations: Prelims can ask the Black Sea's coastal States, the Turkish Straits and the Montreux Convention's rules on warships; GS2 Mains, how war at sea and NATO's eastern flank shape trade and security.
Why it matters
Sailors on merchant ships are paying first: crews are missing at sea, and ships carrying grain and fuel now sail into waters where a drone can strike without warning. The United Nations warns that such attacks push up commodity prices worldwide, so a bakery or a feed mill far from the Black Sea can feel the cost. Ukraine's exports already detour along the Danube and close to Bulgarian and Romanian shores, so strikes there squeeze its last reliable route. Because the strikes fall in or near NATO members' waters, each attack also tests how far the alliance can protect merchant shipping, and the Montreux Convention, which Türkiye implements, limits how many outside warships can come in to help.
Prelims pointers
- Article 24 of the Montreux Convention: the functions of the International Commission of the Straits set up in 1923 passed to the Turkish Government.
- The Black Sea reaches the oceans via the Mediterranean through the Turkish Straits and then the Strait of Gibraltar.
- Article 28 of the Montreux Convention: the principle of freedom of transit and navigation through the Straits continues without limit of time.
- Article 13 of the Montreux Convention: warships give Türkiye eight days' notice of transit; 15 days is desirable for non-Black Sea Powers.
- Article 14 of the Montreux Convention: foreign naval forces in transit through the Straits at one time are capped at nine vessels and 15,000 tons.
- Article 12 of the Montreux Convention: only Black Sea Powers may send submarines through the Straits, by day and on the surface, to rejoin base or for repair.
- Article 20 of the Montreux Convention: when Türkiye is at war, the passage of warships is left entirely to its discretion.
- Romania shares a land border with Ukraine; Bulgaria borders neither Ukraine nor Russia.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Black Sea, consider the following statements:
1. The Turkish Straits comprise the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles.
2. The Black Sea reaches the oceans via the Mediterranean Sea through the Turkish Straits and the Strait of Gibraltar.
3. The Black Sea is connected to the Sea of Azov through the Bosphorus.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only
Answer: (a) 1 and 2 only. The Straits and the Gibraltar route are right; the Azov link is the Kerch Strait.
Statement 1: correct. The Montreux Convention, 1936, defines the Straits as the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus.
Statement 2: correct. UNEP's page on the Bucharest Convention says the Black Sea reaches the oceans via the Mediterranean through the Turkish Straits and Gibraltar.
Statement 3: incorrect. The Sea of Azov joins the Black Sea in the north-east through the Kerch Strait; the Bosphorus leads south-west to the Sea of Marmara.
Eliminate: statement 3 swaps the Kerch Strait for the Bosphorus, so it is wrong. Out: (b), (c), (d).
Trap: Look-alike names. Two straits of the same sea are swapped, the Bosphorus taking the Kerch Strait's place on the Azov side.
Remember: Black Sea exits: Kerch to Azov (north-east), Bosphorus-Marmara-Dardanelles to the Aegean (south-west).
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