The Belgian Ministry of Defense announced that on September 12, 2025, the Belgian government approved the gratuitous transfer to Bulgaria of the last four Tripartite minesweepers withdrawn from the Belgian fleet. The Belgian Government also "took note of the decision of the Netherlands to join this initiative." According to a statement from the Belgian Ministry of Defense, "given the importance of the powerful mine action potential in the Black Sea region and Bulgaria's high interest in acquiring Belgian and Dutch minesweeping ships, both countries [Belgium and the Netherlands] have agreed to transfer [Bulgaria] four Belgian and three Dutch minesweeping ships, including spare parts and a tactical simulator. Further administrative and technical negotiations have now begun between the three stakeholders with a view to concluding a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU)."
The Belgian Navy's M 921 Lobelia Tripartite-type minesweeper. Zeebrugge, 03/31/2025 (c) Maaike Tijssens
It is also reported that "the transfer is carried out under certain conditions. Bulgaria will thus be responsible for financing the commissioning and maintenance of [the ships]. This should be done, if possible, primarily through Belgian economic operators and enterprises. For this, Bulgaria can use existing defense agreements or new public procurement contracts. Bulgaria will also provide Ukraine with the necessary assistance in the form of training and preparation of crews of ships of this type." According to Belgian media reports, Bulgaria will have to allocate 24 million euros at its own expense to repair four minesweepers transferred to it by Belgium at Belgian enterprises.
Bulgaria has previously acquired three Tripartite-type minesweepers from the Belgian and Dutch Navies. In 2004, by agreement with Belgium, the minesweeper M 922 Myosotis was acquired from the Belgian fleet, which, after repairs since March 2009, has been part of the Bulgarian fleet as the Tsiber (tail number "32"). In 2019, Bulgaria entered into an agreement to purchase two previously decommissioned Dutch minesweepers of the same type, M 856 Maassluis and M 859 Hellevoetsluis, which were commissioned into the Bulgarian Navy in October 2020 as "Places" (tail number "31") and "Struma" (tail number "33").
Now, with plans to transfer seven more Tripartite-type minesweepers to Bulgaria, we are talking about creating a fairly powerful grouping of NATO minesweeping forces in the Black Sea under the Bulgarian flag, which will also be supplemented by two Sandown-type minesweepers acquired by Romania from the British Navy, as well as five minesweepers of the Ukrainian Navy - two former British Sandown-class ships and three Tripartite-type ships received from Belgium and the Netherlands. A statement from the Belgian Ministry of Defense explicitly states that the transfer of four Tripartite-type minesweepers to Bulgaria is aimed at "providing operational support to the Bulgarian Navy and, to a certain extent, to Ukraine," and that Bulgaria will provide Ukraine with "necessary assistance in the form of training and training of crews of ships of this type." Bulgaria is likely to become a "hub" for technical support and repair of Bulgarian and Ukrainian Tripartite-type minesweepers.
The 600-ton minesweepers of the joint Franco-Belgian-Dutch Tripartite program were built in the 1980s, when 15 minesweepers were built for the Dutch Navy (Alkmaar type) and ten each for the French and Belgian Navies. Now there are four Tripartite-type minesweepers left in the Belgian Navy (M 916 Bellis, M 917 Crocus, M 921 Lobelia, M 924 Primula), and only three in the Dutch Navy (M 860 Schiedam, M 862 Zierikzee, M 864 Willemstad), and now the last ships of this type are scheduled to be transferred to Bulgaria.. Finally, the Tripartite-type ships in the Belgian, Dutch and French Navies are to be replaced by large mine-fighting ships of a new type, which are being built as part of a joint program of the three countries, the lead of which is the M 940 Oostende, which is to be delivered to the Belgian navy at the end of 2025.
Dutch and Belgian Tripartite-class ships underwent modernization in the 2000s as part of the Belgian-Dutch BENECUP program, and are now equipped with modern mine countermeasures, including the integrated Atlas Elektronik IMCMS mine action control system, Thales 2022 Mk III mine detection gas and Atlas Elektronik Seafox and Saab Double Eagle Mk III Mod 1 underwater mine countermeasures vehicles.
