President Nicusor Dan said on Saturday in Istanbul that at the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara, the strategic partnership between Romania and Turkey could be expanded to include cooperation on Black Sea undersea infrastructure.

'We have a 15-year strategic partnership and shared interests - first of all in the Black Sea. As you know, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey have a joint mine-clearing programme in territorial waters, and at the NATO summit in Ankara - we hope all formalities will be completed by then - we will extend this partnership to include undersea infrastructure in the Black Sea. This is important for us, obviously, because we are interested in exploiting Black Sea gas and other subsea infrastructure, but that is the most important,' Nicusor Dan said at the end of a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the occasion of the ceremony marking the commissioning of the HISAR-class corvette Contraamiral August Roman.

Dan said he also discussed with President Erdogan Romania's wish for the NATO Black Sea Centre - currently located in Istanbul - to be moved to Constanta starting in 2028.

'When we discussed the Black Sea, we also discussed the NATO Black Sea Centre, which is currently in Istanbul and which we want to move to Constanta beginning in 2028. It is a rotational NATO centre for the Black Sea,' the Romanian president said.

Another topic raised, according to Dan, concerned the planned European civil-security centre or hub for the Black Sea region.

The president said the centre's main task would be to gather information on navigation and developments in the Black Sea, with a secondary role of linking the European Union to countries with interests in the region - Turkey among them.

Dan also noted that the two leaders discussed opportunities for cooperation in the defence industry.

He pointed out that a Turkish private company had recently purchased a Romanian company in Medias, adding: 'This is part of our interest in attracting investment into our defence industry, which has not had the most efficient management in the years after the Revolution, but still has interesting opportunities - both in terms of people and locations.'

President Nicusor Dan attended in Istanbul, together with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the ceremony marking the commissioning of the HISAR-class corvette Contraamiral August Roman. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Marinela Brumar; EN - writing by: Simona Klodnischi)