Black Sea

Why in news?

• With the Black Sea route choked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, India is weighing a raft of options–including trade through the strategically important Chabahar Port in Iran–to beat shipping snarls and export goods to the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

About Black Sea:

• Black Sea is a body of water and marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean between the Balkans, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Western Asia.
• It is supplied by a number of major rivers, such as the Danube, Dnieper etc.
• Coastal countries:
  • Bulgaria, Georgia , Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine.
• The Black Sea drains into the Mediterranean Sea, via the Aegean Sea.
• The Bosphorus Strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara which then connects to the Aegean sea through the Dardanelles strait.

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• The nature of Black Sea water is anoxic. This means there is a significant deficiency of oxygen in the water
  • Anoxic waters are areas of seawater, freshwater, or groundwater that are depleted of dissolved oxygen and are a more severe condition of hypoxia
• It is a saltwater sea but its salinity is not as high as ocean water. It is believed that thousands of years ago the water was freshwater but later due to the Mediterranean Sea and floods, the water turned salty

Commonwealth of Independent States:

• The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is an intergovernmental organisation created in 1991 amongst the former countries of the Soviet Union.
• The founding states of the CIS include Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
• The remaining republics of the Soviet Union joined the Commonwealth of Independent States after signing the Alma-Ata Protocol. Now, the CIS has the following countries as its members:
  • Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
• CIS’s functions are to coordinate its members’ policies regarding their economies, foreign relations, defense, immigration policies, environmental protection, and law enforcement.

PRACTICE QUESTION

Which of the following countries does not have a coast on the Black Sea?

(a) Serbia

(b) Romania

(c) Ukraine

(d) Georgia

Answer