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Turkish minister says there’ll be no changes in Montreux Convention’s application

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the beginning of construction of the Istanbul Canal, which will run between the Marmara Sea to bypass the Bosporus

ANTALYA, June 30. /TASS/. Turkey comes from the premise that the Montreux Convention will continue to be effective even after the Istanbul Canal that will run parallel to the Bosporus Strait is finished and opens, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Wednesday at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov.

"The Montreux Convention is not linked to the Istanbul Canal and vice versa, the canal is not tied to the convention. We will apply the Montreux [Convention] without any changes as before," he said. "We follow every letter of this convention. Moreover, it not only regulates vessel passage but also movement of military ships, their time of staying in the Black Sea and tonnage."

The minister recalled, "the very text of this convention outlines the procedures to change or denounce it", and they are well known but "there won’t be any changes to the Montreux Convention" after the canal is constructed.

Cavusoglu noted that the construction officially began on June 26 and that Ankara if convinced that a new waterway artery is urgently needed between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea, while "international business is hugely interested in such a canal".

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the beginning of construction of the Istanbul Canal, which will run between the Marmara Sea to bypass the Bosporus. The project was first unveiled by Erdogan back in 2011.

The canal is believed to have a daily transit capacity of 160-180 vessels, including tankers carrying up to 300,000 tonnes of shipments. The Bosporus Strait currently manages 43,000 ships annually, and is very difficult to navigate. Experts believe that the vessel transit through the Bosporus will exceed 70,000 in the next 10-15 years.