Egypt, Greece to Demarcate Maritime Borders against Turkey's Ambitions

Cairo and Athens are about to demarcate maritime borders in the Mediterranean to restrain other regional ambitions in the region, according to Greece Ambassador to Egypt Nikolaos Garilidis.

This agreement would help Egypt to drill oil and gas exploratory wells in the economic regions in the territorial waters with Greece.

According to observers, Greece has recently signed an agreement with Italy on maritime borders, including the establishment of an Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) between the two countries, to resolve many disputes over fishing and drilling rights in marine resources.

Meantime, Athens works on mobilizing international support to stop Ankara's ambitions in the region, especially after it drew a controversial map with Libya and announcing to conduct gas exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean.

From a Greek perspective, the signing of the EEZ with Italy has major ramifications for Turkey's plans to steal oil and gas from the Greek naval region, hampering its efforts to fully control the eastern Mediterranean.

Last year, Turkey signed a maritime agreement with the Muslim Brotherhood government in Libya to extract Greek oil without acknowledging the existence of Cyprus in the EEZ.

These agreements between Greece, Italy and Egypt are  indeed of great importance in order to ensure prosperity and cooperation between the three countries in the oil and gas rich region.

Egypt, Greece EZZ biggest challenge for Turkey

The biggest obstacle for Turkey and Libya will be the declaration of the Greek economic zone with Egypt. Greece and Italy have settled their borders using international law, and it is expected that Greece and Egypt will use the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Gas from the eastern Mediterranean will help to maximize the benefits of the liquefaction and infrastructure of the gas trade network, especially in Egypt as it plans to coordinate with Cyprus to transfer the production of the Aphrodite gas field in the eastern Mediterranean to Egypt by 2025.