Libya notifies the UN of its ministerial decision that it has a zone of 12 nautical miles of territorial waters, and above all that it declares a contiguous zone for another 24 nautical miles. to the north, a right it has based on the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
In particular, as stated in a relevant publication of the "Kathimerini" newspaper, in essence this specific move has the main objective of responding to the decree for the determination of the western limits of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Egypt, which was another initiative of the government of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in order to cancel collateral problems created by the Turkish-Libyan memorandum of 2019 on the Egyptian side.
It is noted that Libya and Egypt disagree on the delimitation of their maritime borders and with the latest letter to the UN, Tripoli essentially claims that these are further east, as can be seen from the map accompanying the report.
It is worth noting that the contiguous zone of 24 sailors miles does not grant the state that declares it sovereign rights, but gives control rights in matters concerning the commercial traffic (customs), the better safety or the immigration.
All lines are drawn based on the Libyan perception of things, hence also eastwards, on the border with Egypt.
It is expected, of course, that Cairo will respond to this specific demarcation by means of a letter to the United Nations, specifically to the Directorate of Oceans and Law of the Sea, where the Libyan decision is now posted.
What does Libya's move mean for Greece?
As stated in the relevant publication, for the Greek side, the move by the government of Tripoli does not fundamentally change what was already known. As for example that the bay of Sirte is "closed" and is a starting point for the baselines that are the starting point of measurement for territorial waters, sea zones such as the declared contiguous one and, of course, for the EEZ.
It is, of course, exerting an indirect pressure on Athens regarding the pending extension of the territorial waters in the south of Crete, which are opposite the Cyrenaica of Libya, to 12 miles, a fact which Ankara and Tripoli did not accept in 2019 , as in the memorandum they signed with a skewed demarcation, the innovative view was chosen that Libya and Turkey have objected coasts.
It is recalled that Greece proceeded to extend the territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the maritime area of the Ionian and the Ionian Islands up to Cape Tainaro in the Peloponnese about three years ago (presidential decree December 2020 and vote by the Parliament January 2021).
This decision, however, was not accompanied by the corresponding one for the declaration of a contiguous zone of 24 nautical miles in the Ionian Sea. Crete was not included in the expansion, to a significant extent due to Ankara's interpretation of the casus belli.
Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias sent a message that Greece's right to extend territorial waters to 12 miles is non-negotiable.
In statements from Lisbon on Wednesday, Mr. Dendias pointed out that Turkey must respect "international law" regarding the Greek decision. "The Greek parliament considered that Greece has the sovereign right to extend its territorial waters from six to 12 miles in both southern Greece and the Aegean Sea," the Greek foreign minister said.
As Mr. Dendias characteristically said, it is a sovereign right of Greece and non-negotiable: "we do not need to negotiate with another country to expand our territorial waters".
source natanaelgiting, Image license by freepik.com
