Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has rejected Turkey’s maritime agreement with Libya as “blatantly illegal, null and void” and called for a truce to protect commercial shipping in the Black Sea, Reuters reported Thursday.
Speaking to the news agency in New York, Mitsotakis said the agreement disregarded Greek islands lying between the Turkish and Libyan coasts, including Crete, and accused the two countries of attempting to impose maritime boundaries that violated international law.
Libya’s eastern-based parliament approved the agreement on October 20, reversing years of opposition to the pact, which Turkey originally signed with Libya’s then-internationally recognized government in Tripoli in November 2019.
The agreement draws a maritime boundary that underpins Turkish and Libyan claims to offshore oil and gas resources. Greece argues that it infringes on its islands’ rights to surrounding waters and seabed resources. Turkey maintains that the pact complies with international law and protects both countries’ interests.
Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates joined Greece in condemning the agreement Monday. Their joint statement, which also represented Cyprus and the European Union, warned that agreements disregarding other countries’ rights threatened regional stability.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dismissed the objections as lacking a legitimate basis, saying Turkey was defending its maritime rights.
Greece and Egypt signed a separate, partially overlapping maritime boundary agreement in 2020, which Turkey rejects. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that Ankara remained ready to conclude its own agreement with Cairo, but announced no negotiations or timetable.
Mitsotakis urged Libya to negotiate directly with Greece and said gas exploration by a Chevron-led consortium off Crete would not be jeopardized by the dispute.
The eastern Libyan parliament’s reversal reflects Turkey’s growing ties with a former adversary. Libya remains divided between a UN-recognized government in Tripoli and a rival eastern administration backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar. Turkish military support helped repel Haftar’s offensive on Tripoli in 2019-2020.
Ankara has since expanded relations with Haftar’s camp while maintaining support for Tripoli. Turkey also hosted talks between the rival administrations last week, although a Turkish official said Wednesday that no reunification agreement had been reached.
On Black Sea security, Mitsotakis called for an international truce after a Greek-owned container ship sank following a naval drone attack off Bulgaria on Wednesday. Responsibility for the attack was not immediately clear.
He said safe passage was essential to restoring grain exports and warned that rising shipping and insurance costs were disrupting trade.
His appeal followed a similar call from Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Güler, who urged Russia and Ukraine on Wednesday to stop attacks on commercial vessels. Turkey says it is awaiting responses from both countries to a proposal aimed at protecting shipping and grain exports.
Mitsotakis also urged EU countries to contribute more naval resources to Aspides, the bloc’s mission protecting shipping from attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis in the Red Sea.
