Greece and Egypt are in talks to extend their maritime agreement eastwards, two days after Libya’s eastern parliament ratified the rival delimitation deal with Turkiye that both countries reject. Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said after a phone call with his Egyptian counterpart Badr Abdelatty on Thursday that the two are discussing extending their exclusive economic zone towards Cyprus, and that any extension would be fully in line with international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Both ministers reaffirmed their opposition to the ratification.
The vote they are answering reversed years of eastern Libyan policy. The House of Representatives, aligned with commander Khalifa Haftar, voted unanimously on Tuesday to ratify the November 2019 memorandum signed by Tripoli’s then government with Turkiye, having rejected ratification in 2020 and voted to sever political ties with Ankara. Tripoli’s Government of National Unity welcomed the vote, and Turkiye says the agreement respects both countries’ rights. Greece calls the memorandum illegal and void, arguing that Turkiye and Libya share neither opposite nor adjacent coasts and that the deal ignores the maritime rights of Greek islands, Crete among them. Egypt’s foreign ministry said the ratification carries no legal consequences for Egypt and is null and void. The European Union backed Athens, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying she deeply regrets the ratification, a position this site published on October 20, and Israel condemned the move.
The extension discussion is the substantive new step. Greece and Egypt signed their own delimitation agreement in August 2020, covering part of the eastern Mediterranean. Extending it eastwards towards Cyprus would align the two zones against the area the Turkiye-Libya line claims, and it puts Cairo in a visibly awkward position: Egypt has long backed Haftar and the eastern parliament, whose vote it has now publicly rejected.
No extension text exists yet. The verifiable next step is whether the consultations produce a signed addendum or a joint survey or licensing move in the contested area, either of which would convert a legal argument into activity on the water.