Eastern Libyan Parliament Ratifies Maritime Agreement With Turkey

Lawmakers in eastern Libya approved a maritime agreement with Turkey on Tuesday, establishing a direct economic corridor between the two nations. The vote was unanimous in the parliament located in Tobruk.

The corridor connects Turkey's southern coastline with the northern coast of Libya. Recent geological surveys indicate large deposits of oil and gas exist in the waters between the two countries. Estimates suggest natural gas reserves in this zone are worth several hundred billion US dollars. Ankara and Tripoli intend to secure joint rights to exploit these resources.

Turkey initially agreed to this corridor in 2019 with the UN-recognized Government of National Accord in western Libya. The rival government in eastern Libya opposed the arrangement at that time. The eastern parliament has now reversed its previous stance, and Turkey's Foreign Ministry welcomed the recent vote.

Greece has announced its opposition to the new route. The planned corridor ignores the presence of Greek islands, including Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. Athens asserts it holds a comprehensive exclusive economic zone around these territories. Greece's Foreign Ministry stated on X that it firmly rejects the accord with the backing of the European Union. The EU called the memorandum null and void because 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, also voiced opposition. She wrote on X that she had raised the issue of the Libyan vote and stressed that the agreement infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states.

The core of the dispute involves competing claims under international law. Greece relies on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Article 121 of that convention grants inhabited islands the same exclusive economic zone rights as mainland territory. Athens argues this covers Crete, Rhodes, and Lesbos. It also points to a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling involving Colombia and Nicaragua. That ruling held that overlapping interests require a fair demarcation that weighs coastlines, geography, and the effects of any boundary.

Turkey argues that Mediterranean geography deserves special weight in the calculation. Ankara claims that if every small Greek island near the Turkish and Cypriot coasts received a full exclusive economic zone, Turkey would be largely cut off from the open sea. Turkey never signed the convention and does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal. Legal experts disagree on what a fair division of the waters would look like.

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 Turkish diplomatic effort has since brought a rapprochement with Hifter's camp. Turkish firms have won reconstruction contracts worth billions of dollars. Turkey's state oil company TPAO is working with Libya's National Oil Corporation on plans for seismic surveys off the coast. Turkey also supplies weapons and training to Hifter's forces, countering Egyptian and Russian influence in the east.

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