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NATO should play a bigger role in security in the Black Sea and join its air and missile defences with Ukraine's, says the country's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba.

The Black Sea, to Ukraine's south, has been a crucial theatre of war since Russia invaded, and both Kyiv and Moscow use it for trade - including vital grain exports to the rest of the world.

Russia blockaded ports last year, threatening the grain shipments.

Mr Kuleba told a security conference in Bucharest it was "time to turn the Black Sea into what the Baltic Sea has become, a sea of NATO".

"We need to address the common Russia problem together," he added. 

"For instance, I support the expert idea to integrate the air and missile defence systems of Ukraine with the ones of the Black and Baltic Sea NATO allies." 

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the call and said the "Black Sea can never be a NATO sea."

He told reporters: "This is a shared sea, it must be a sea of cooperation, interaction and security for all its littoral states. And this security is indivisible." 

NATO's deputy secretary general, Mircea Geoana, did not respond directly but said the alliance had continued to increase its presence in the Black Sea region.

Ukraine wants to join NATO - which recently expanded to 31 members when Finland joined this month.

Romania, Ukraine and Moldova also signed cooperation agreements - designed to boost political, economic and security cooperation -  at today's meeting.