Eastern Libya Unanimously Ratifies $100 Billion Turkey Sea Pact

Libya’s eastern parliament voted unanimously on Tuesday to approve a maritime agreement with Turkey. The decision formalizes a direct economic corridor linking the two nations’ coastlines. This action reverses the position taken by the eastern government in 2019, when it opposed the original deal struck between Turkey and the UN-recognized government in Tripoli.

The corridor stretches from Turkey’s southern coast to Libya’s northern coast. Recent surveys indicate large oil and gas deposits exist in this area. Estimates place the value of natural gas reserves under the seabed at several hundred billion US dollars. Ankara and Tripoli aim to secure their economic rights to these resources and manage joint exploitation. Turkey’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the parliamentary vote immediately after the session concluded.

Greece has announced its opposition to the new arrangement. The Greek Foreign Ministry stated on X that it firmly rejects the accord with the backing of the European Union. Athens argues it holds a comprehensive exclusive economic zone around islands including Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. The EU characterized the memorandum as null and void because it violates the sovereign rights of third states. The bloc also noted the deal is inconsistent with the Law of the Sea.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, echoed these concerns. She wrote on X that she had raised the Libyan vote and stressed that it infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states. Greece relies on Article 121 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to support its claims. That article grants inhabited islands the same economic zone rights as mainland territory if they support their own economic life. Athens points to a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling between Colombia and Nicaragua to argue that overlapping interests require fair demarcation.

Turkey contends that Mediterranean geography deserves special consideration in boundary disputes. Ankara argues that granting full economic zones to every small Greek island near its coast would cut Turkey off from the open sea. Turkey never signed the convention and does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal. Legal experts remain divided on what a fair division of the sea would look like in this specific region.

Political dynamics in Libya have shifted since the 2019 civil war. Turkey intervened militarily to support the Tripoli government against eastern General Khalifa Hifter. Since then, Turkish firms have won reconstruction contracts worth billions, and a rapprochement with Hifter’s camp has developed. Turkey’s state oil company TPAO is working with Libya’s National Oil Corporation on seismic surveys. Ankara also supplies weapons and training to Hifter’s forces, countering Egyptian and Russian influence in the east.

The new corridor intersects the planned route of the EastMed pipeline. That project is designed to carry gas from Israel and Cyprus through Greece to bolster EU energy security. Turkey has argued that it requires consent for any cable or pipeline projects on its claimed continental shelf. The development sets up a potential split in the region into a Turkey-Libya axis and an EU-supported grouping including Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel.