ATHENS: Greece has invited Libya’s internationally recognized government in Tripoli to start talks on demarcating exclusive economic zones in the Mediterranean Sea, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.
The move is aimed at mending relations between the two neighbors, strained by a controversial maritime deal signed in 2019 between the Libyan government and Turkiye, Greece’s long-standing foe, which mapped out a sea area close to the Greek island of Crete.
“We invite — and I think you may soon see progress in this area — we invite the Tripoli government to discuss with Greece the delimitation of a continental shelf and an exclusive economic zone,” Mitsotakis told local Skai television.
Greece this year launched a new tender to develop its hydrocarbon resources off Crete, a move that Libya has objected to, saying some of the blocks infringed its own maritime zones.
Law and order has been weak in Libya since a 2011 uprising that toppled dictator Muammar Qaddafi, with the country divided by factional conflict into eastern and western sections for over a decade.
