On Saturday, the Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, said that his country is looking forward to the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with Libya once elections have taken place.
These remarks came during a joint press conference with his Lebanese counterpart, Abdullah Bou Habib, following their meeting in Athens.
“This would create another triangle of stability: Greece, Egypt, Libya, and in the Eastern Mediterranean. We would also wish for this example to extend to our neighbour Turkey,” the Greek top diplomat added.
He noted, “we hope to be in position, after the elections in Turkey, to negotiate with Turkey the only bilateral difference [between the two countries], always according to the international law of the sea.”
On Sunday, the Spokesperson of the United States (US) State Department, Ned Price, said that the country is open to the possibility of an energy interconnection between Greece and Libya.
The Spokesperson said that the US continues to support projects that promote the energy interconnection of the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa with Europe.
Last month, Libya and Turkey signed a series of economic agreements that included potential energy exploration in maritime areas.
The agreements will allow for oil and gas exploration in Libyan waters and come three years after the two countries signed a maritime border deal, Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, said after signing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Tripoli.
Last month the European Union (EU) said the deal infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states and doesn’t comply with the United Nations (UN) Law of the Sea. The Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it is following developments in Libya very closely, “especially Monday’s signing of a ‘memorandum of cooperation between the Libyan Government of National Unity (GNU) and Turkey in the field of hydrocarbons.“
The Egypt-Greece statement added that Greece “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.”
Libya, home to Africa’s largest crude oil reserves and a member of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), has largely been wracked by chaos since Moammar Gaddafi was toppled in 2011.