Libyan East votes for Turkish sea route

Eastern Libya's parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a maritime agreement with Turkey. The vote establishes a direct economic corridor between the two countries' coasts. This move reverses the position taken by the eastern government in 2019, when it opposed the original deal struck between Turkey and the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in Tripoli.

The corridor links Turkey's southern coast with Libya's northern coast. Recent surveys have identified large oil and gas deposits in this area. Estimates suggest natural gas reserves under the seabed could be worth several hundred billion US dollars. Ankara and Tripoli intend to secure joint rights to these resources and begin exploitation together.

The agreement ignores the territorial claims of Greek islands, including Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. Athens maintains that these islands possess comprehensive exclusive economic zones. The Greek Foreign Ministry announced on X that it firmly rejects the accord with the backing of the European Union. The EU has called the memorandum null and void, stating it violates the sovereign rights of third states and conflicts with the Law of the Sea.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, echoed this stance. She wrote on X that the Libyan vote infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states. The legal dispute centers on how to divide the sea. Greece relies on Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. This article grants inhabited islands the same exclusive economic zone rights as mainland territory. Athens cites a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling regarding Colombia and Nicaragua to support its view on fair demarcation.

Turkey argues that Mediterranean geography requires special consideration. Ankara claims that granting full exclusive economic zones to every small Greek island near its coast would cut Turkey off from the open sea. Turkey has not signed the UN convention and therefore does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal. Legal experts continue to disagree on what constitutes a fair division in this region.

Political dynamics in Libya have shifted since 2019. At that time, civil war was raging, and Turkey intervened militarily to support the Tripoli government against an offensive by eastern General Khalifa Hifter. A subsequent diplomatic push by Turkey led to a rapprochement with Hifter's camp. Turkish firms have won billions of dollars in reconstruction contracts. The state oil company TPAO is working with Libya's National Oil Corporation on seismic surveys off the coast. Turkey also supplies weapons and training to Hifter's forces, countering Egyptian and Russian influence in the east.

The new corridor threatens the planned EastMed pipeline. That project is designed to carry gas from Israel and Cyprus through Greece to bolster EU energy security. The new sea route cuts across the pipeline's planned path. Turkey has argued that any cable or pipeline projects on its claimed continental shelf require its consent. The region may split into two blocs: a Turkey-Libya axis and an EU-supported grouping of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel.