(Ankara) Amid tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Turkish officials and the media on Wednesday said the United States had abandoned deploying two warships in the Black Sea this week across the Turkish Strait.
Turkish diplomatic missions on Wednesday said the first American ship had not been approved as planned.
According to the state news agency Anadolu, quoting other Turkish officials, the voyage scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday has been canceled and Ankara has not been notified that the expansion is likely to be postponed.
Turkish officials announced last week on April 14 and 15 that they had informed the United States about two warships heading towards the Black Sea via the Dardanelles and Bosphorus Straits.
The 1936 Montreux Convention, which governs traffic in the Turkish Strait, commands non-Black Sea border countries to declare 15 days in advance of their cruise.
The deployment announcement came amid growing tensions between Russia and Ukraine, and Washington indicated its support for the decision to send warships to Kiev.
The maneuver, announced by the Turks the day after a telephone conversation between US President Joe Biden and his Russian rival Vladimir Putin, was scrapped.
At the meeting, Mr Biden offered to meet with Mr Putin in a third country, and the White House called on the Russian president to “reduce tensions” in Ukraine.
Concerns in the West have been mounting in recent days over Russian troops joining the Ukrainian border and Crimea, a territory occupied by Moscow in 2014.
The deployment comes in the wake of renewed incidents between Kiev forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
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