Greece, which relied on Egypt against Turkey's moves in the EASTERN Mediterranean, was caught by Turkey. After the Benghazi administration in the east of Libya approved the Türkiye-Libya maritime jurisdiction agreement dated 2019, the Athens administration wanted to expand the borders in a similar agreement signed with Egypt in 2020. However, Dimitris Keridis, Parliament Speaker of the ruling New Democracy Party and former Minister of Immigration, admitted that "Egypt does not want to expand the agreement without Türkiye sitting at the table." Cairo's "No way without Ankara" attitude seems to disrupt the plans of Athens, which wants to strengthen its hand against Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean.
CAIRO DID NOT ACCEPT
Speaking in the program he attended on ANT1 television, Keridis stated that an agreement has not yet been reached on the expansion of the partial exclusive economic zone (EEZ) agreement signed between Greece and Egypt in 2020 towards the east of Rhodes Island. Saying that Athens invited Cairo to new negotiations, Keridis said, "We have invited Egypt to advance the delimitation talks with us and we continue to do so. However, Egypt says 'No, Turkey should also come. Because Turkey has objections here."
TELEPHONE DIPLOMACY WITH SISI
Keridis' statements came at a time when Athens was intensifying its contacts with Cairo. Egypt was among the countries that reacted to the Türkiye-Libya agreement both bilaterally and at the United Nations. Athens then took action to increase cooperation with Cairo.
As a matter of fact, after the French research ship Abeille Marengo left the Heraklion Port in Crete the previous day within the scope of the Greece-GCASC electricity connection project, Prime Minister Kiriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the phone with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
TABLE TARGET BY THE END OF THE YEAR
The Greek government presents the resumption of talks with Egypt as a move against the approval of the Türkiye-Libya maritime jurisdiction agreement and as a response to Ankara's initiatives in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Athens aims to bring Egypt to the negotiation table again and start EEZ negotiations by the end of the year. The critical point of this initiative is the region east of the 28th meridian, where the Greece-Egypt partial maritime jurisdiction delimitation in 2020 ended. Athens is trying to persuade Cairo to make a new delimitation to include this region, which has been left out of the agreement to date due to Turkey's objections.
Ankara, which opposes the Greek islands' full influence in determining maritime jurisdiction, argues that Egypt can obtain larger maritime jurisdiction areas if it reaches an agreement with Turkey on a delimitation method based on the median line.
Greece, which is trying to oppose Turkey's Blue Homeland doctrine in the Eastern Mediterranean, is trying to attract Egypt to this end.
