Libya's East approves $100 billion sea route with Turkey

Residents of eastern Libya now operate under a new maritime framework that links their coast directly to Turkey. The eastern parliament approved the agreement on Tuesday with no dissenting votes. This decision reverses the stance of the region's leaders in 2019, when they opposed a similar deal signed by the government in the west.

The corridor connects the southern coast of Turkey with the northern coast of Libya. Recent surveys indicate that the seabed in this zone contains natural gas reserves worth several hundred billion US dollars. Ankara and Tripoli intend to secure joint economic rights to these deposits. The agreement creates a direct economic link between the two nations, bypassing other Mediterranean states.

Greece objects to the route because it passes near Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. Athens claims an exclusive economic zone around these islands. The Greek Foreign Ministry stated on X that it firmly rejects the accord. The ministry noted that the European Union has called the memorandum null and void because it infringes on the sovereign rights of third states. Kaja Kallas, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, also criticized the vote on X, stating that it infringes upon the rights of third states.

The legal dispute centers on the interpretation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Greece points to Article 121, which grants inhabited islands the same economic zone rights as mainland territory. Athens cites a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling involving Colombia and Nicaragua to support its position on fair demarcation. Turkey argues that geography deserves special weight in the Mediterranean. Ankara claims that if every small Greek island received a full economic zone, Turkey would be cut off from the open sea. Turkey has not signed the convention and does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal.

Political dynamics in Libya have shifted since the civil war of 2019. Turkey intervened militarily to support the government in Tripoli against General Khalifa Hifter's forces in the east. Since then, Turkish firms have won reconstruction contracts worth billions of dollars. Turkey's state oil company TPAO is currently working with Libya's National Oil Corporation on seismic surveys. Turkey also supplies weapons and training to Hifter's forces, a move that counters Egyptian and Russian influence in the region.

The new corridor also intersects the planned route of the EastMed pipeline. That project is designed to carry gas from Israel and Cyprus through Greece to the EU. Turkey has argued that it requires consent for any cable or pipeline projects on its claimed continental shelf. The region may divide into two distinct blocs: a Turkey-Libya axis and a grouping of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel supported by the EU.