a Turkish foreign ministry source said. Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his counterparts from Bulgaria and Romania on the sidelines of the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels, said the ministry source. All three countries have the Black Sea as at least part of their coastline.

During that meeting, "the importance attached to the security of the Black Sea for the three NATO member littoral states was emphasised," the foreign ministry source said. "It was stressed that freedom of navigation and compliance with international legal rules in the Black Sea are necessary," the source added. Turkey on Tuesday said a tanker had reported coming under attack in the Black Sea on its way from Russia to Georgia, days after two other vessels were hit off the Turkish coast. Two ships, the Virat and the Kairos, were rocked by explosions off Turkey's coast late on Friday, according to Turkey's transport ministry, with one of the two struck again early Saturday. Ukraine said at the time it had targeted vessels "covertly transporting Russian oil". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the drone attacks on Friday were a "worrying escalation". "We cannot under any circumstances accept these attacks, which threaten the safety of navigation, the environment and lives in our exclusive economic zone," he said on Monday evening. (Bssnews)