Greece has strongly condemned a recent memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between Libya’s National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Turkey’s state energy company, TPAO, to explore four offshore zones in the eastern Mediterranean.
The agreement, signed in Istanbul, outlines a two-dimensional seismic survey spanning 10,000 kilometres and processing of the data within nine months.
Speaking at a press conference following the NATO summit in The Hague, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis labelled the MoU as “unacceptable, illegal, and baseless,” asserting it carries “no legal effect.”
He argued that the deal undermines international maritime law and completely disregards the sovereignty of Greece, particularly the maritime rights of the island of Crete.
Athens has long rejected the maritime boundary claims resulting from Turkish-Libyan agreements, stating that they ignore the presence of Greek islands and unfairly allocate vast swathes of maritime territory to Libya and Turkey.
The Greek government intends to bring up the issue again during the European Council Summit in Brussels this week.
Mitsotakis also revealed that he briefly met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the margins of the NATO gathering. “The issues that needed to be raised were raised,” he noted, without disclosing details of the exchange.
The maritime MoU between Libya and Turkey builds on a previous controversial agreement signed in 2019, which was also heavily criticised by Greece and the EU. That earlier accord was never ratified by Libya’s House of Representatives and remains a source of regional tension.
The latest deal has once again drawn Greece into a diplomatic standoff, with broader implications for EU-Turkey-Libya relations, energy exploration rights, and stability in the eastern Mediterranean.
