Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning at the Megaros Maximos Palace with the new Chairman of the Presidential Council of the new Libyan National Unity Government, Mohammad Yunus al Menfi.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council agreed to immediately resume negotiations between Greece and Libya on the delimitation of sea zones under the responsibility of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
They also discussed the prospects for expanding economic relations, which in the near future will be the subject of the visit of Deputy Foreign Minister Costas Frangogiannis to Libya. Special attention was paid to cooperation in the field of culture.
The piquancy of the situation lies in the fact that just over a year ago, Muhammad Yunus al Menfi was the Libyan ambassador to Greece, was announced Persona non Grata and was expelled from the country precisely because of the agreement signed between Libya and Turkey on November 27, 2019, which marks the maritime border between the two countries near the Greek island of Crete.
A few days earlier, in early December 2019, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias called the Turkish-Libyan agreement “a flagrant violation of international law.” “This step does not mean that Greece is severing diplomatic relations with Libya,” Dendias said. “The expulsion is the latest step in action by Mediterranean states fighting to claim the region’s as-yet untapped oil and gas.”
Greece and Turkey disagree on a range of issues, from mineral rights offshore the Aegean to ethnically divided Cyprus.
Libya’s unity government came to power on March 16, replacing the two rival administrations that ruled the eastern and western regions during the decade of brutal chaos following the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi.
Earlier, on April 6, the Greek Prime Minister paid a visit to Libya, where he was the resumption of the activities of the Greek Embassy… Mitsotakis was accompanied by Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias. Last played active role in efforts to establish contacts amid concerns about the growing influence of Turkey in the North African country, in addition to the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum on the delimitation of maritime zones signed by Ankara with the government of Fayez al-Sarraj in November 2019.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council agreed to immediately resume negotiations between Greece and Libya on the delimitation of sea zones under the responsibility of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
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