Libya (GNA)–Turkey maritime deal

A few hours before welcoming Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Ankara, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to Kathimerini about all the issues pertaining to the two countries' bilateral relations: The old differences, such as the delimitation of the continental shelf and the Libya Government of National Accord (GNA) - Turkey maritime deal, as well as about the new ones that h

Turkey agreed to provide its increasingly popular drones to Egypt after the two countries normalised ties following a decade of rupture, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday.

Turkey's growing influence in Libya is reportedly worrying Athens, especially as tensions between Ankara and Benghazi have eased.

In a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Greece's permanent representative to the organization, Evangelos Sekeris, says that Libya's recent decision to declare a 24-nautical mile contiguous zone, extending beyond its 12-nautical mile territorial sea, violates international law in three key respects.

Turkish President Recep Tayipp Erdogan reiterated his country's determination to defend its "Blue Homeland" from the Aegean to the Eastern Mediterranean, stressing that Ankara has not "changed its axis," but has created its own, which he called the "axis of Turkey."

In the latest reshuffling of the pack in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Tripoli government in Libya has informed the United Nations of the Council of Ministers' decision, led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid al-Dbeibeh, to declare a 12 nautical mile territorial waters zone and then, to declare a contiguous zone extending 24 nautical miles northward, as permitted by the United Nations Convention on

Libya's prime minister suspended Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush on Sunday and referred her for investigation after Israel said its Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had met her last week despite the countries not having formal relations.

After several years of virtually nonexistent relations, Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis spoke on the telephone Wednesday with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, signaling that contacts between Athens and Tripoli are at a turning point in the effort to build functional channels of communication.

The upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 is a first opportunity for Greece and Turkey to pick up the thread of bilateral relations again. The preceding four years started badly, with the sharp increase in refugee and migrant flows in the summer of 2019, and got even worse with the signing of the Turkey-Libya (GNA) maritime deal in November of the same year.

Türkiye's parliament on June 21 extended for another 18 months a mandate that allows the deployment of Turkish troops to Libya.

The mandate was renewed with the votes of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling party and its nationalist allies which hold a majority in parliament. An opposition party also voted in favor of the extension.