Mitsotakis urges Libya to scrap Turkey maritime deal; hails relaunch of bilateral relations

In his first visit to Libya, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on the interim government to scrap an agreement on maritime boundaries signed with Turkey in 2019, which Athens says violates international law.

A precondition for any progress in Libya’s relations with the EU is the departure of foreign forces and mercenaries from Libya — a request also made by numerous EU countries — he said in a joint press briefing with Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh in Tripoli on Tuesday.

“And of course for us, it is very important, is the annulment of illegal documents which were presented as supposedly transnational agreements but but have no legal effect, as expressly stated by the European Council,” he added.

“It is time to leave behind everything that tested our relations in the recent past,” he said and described the opening of a Greek embassy in Tripoli as a “milestone” in Greek-Libyan relations.

Turkey and the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) signed the maritime agreement, as well as a military cooperation deal, in November 2019.

Dbeibeh’s new UN-backed unity government took office last month with a mandate to improve services and prepare for a national election in December.