Greece’s Foreign Minister, Nikos Dendias, has questioned the legitimacy of the recent memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between Turkey and Libya’s government of national unity.
According to Ekathimerini, Libya’s Tripoli government signed a series of preliminary economic agreements with Turkey on Monday that included potential energy exploration in maritime areas.
Libya’s eastern-based parliament rejected the move.
It was not immediately clear whether any concrete deals to emerge would include exploration in the “exclusive economic zone” which Turkey and a previous Tripoli government agreed in 2019, angering other eastern Mediterranean states.
That zone envisaged the two countries sharing a maritime border but was attacked by Greece and Cyprus and criticised by Egypt and Israel.
Now, in a statement released on Monday night, the Greek Foreign Affairs Ministry noted that it is following recent developments in Libya “very closely.”
Greece, the ministry said, “holds sovereign rights in the area, which it intends to defend by all legal means, in full respect to the International Law of the Sea.”
“Any action or reference in implementation of said ‘memorandum’ will be de facto illegal, and -depending on its gravity – will carry a reaction both at the bilateral level and at the level of the European Union and NATO,” the ministry added.
Dendias also brought up Greece’s concerns with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, during a telephone conversation on Monday.
READ MORE: Turkey and Libya recommit to contested maritime borders deal, angering Greece.
Source: AMNA.gr and Ekathimerini.
