Dendias for talks in Cairo next week
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has said he will travel to Cairo on June 18 to resume talks with Egyptian officials on demarcating maritime boundaries between the two countries.
Dendias was speaking on Antenna TV late Tuesday after Greece and Italy signed an agreement on maritime boundaries, establishing an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) between the two states and resolving long-standing issues over fishing rights in the Ionian Sea.
The Greek official said the deal with Italy had naturally irritated Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“Italy has fully adopted an interpretation of international law as understood by Greece,” Dendias said.
“Turkey is alone in insisting on this one-dimensional view that islands have neither a continental shelf nor an [exclusive] economic zone,” he said.
He vowed that Greece would defend its sovereign rights in line with the provisions of international law.
“We will not give up anything that’s ours. We do not wish to take anything away from Turkey,” he said.
Last November, Turkey signed a maritime boundaries agreement with Libya’s internationally-recognized government that has been strongly opposed by Greece, Egypt and Cyprus.
