Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has relayed that the United States has cancelled the passage of its warships to the Black Sea.

“We were verbally told that the passage of the ships was cancelled. However, if they change their mind, they have three more days to use the previous notification and send the ships – the notification will still be valid. If the ships do not pass within three days, then they will again need to make a notification 15 days before the expected passage,” Cavusoglu said.According to him, recently the United States sent 14 notifications about the passage of its warships to the Black Sea, of which five were later cancelled.

Earlier, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that Washington had notified Ankara about the passage of its two warships through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, where they would be stationed from 14-15 April to 4-5 May.

According to Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, the operations of American warships in the Black Sea are “routine”, the United States is coordinating these actions with the Turkish authorities under the Montreux Convention.