Libya's Eastern Parliament: Unanimous Vote Ratifies Turkish Sea Corridor

Libya remains divided between rival governments in the east and west, a split that has complicated regional energy politics for years. On Tuesday, the parliament in eastern Libya voted unanimously to approve a maritime agreement with Turkey.

The accord establishes a direct economic corridor linking the southern coast of Turkey with the northern coast of Libya. This move reverses the position taken by the eastern leadership in 2019, when the rival government in the west initially agreed to the corridor with Ankara. Turkey's Foreign Ministry welcomed the new vote, signaling a strengthening of ties between the two nations.

The strategic importance of this corridor stems from recent discoveries of large oil and gas deposits in the area. Estimates suggest that natural gas reserves under the seabed could be worth several hundred billion US dollars. Both Ankara and Tripoli aim to secure their economic rights to these resources and exploit them jointly through this new framework.

The agreement has intensified tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, particularly with Greece. The planned route bypasses Greek islands, including Crete, Karpathos, and Rhodes. Athens maintains that it holds a comprehensive exclusive economic zone around these islands. In response, Greece's Foreign Ministry stated on X that it firmly rejects the accord with the backing of the European Union. The EU declared the memorandum null and void, arguing it violates the sovereign rights of third states and conflicts with the Law of the Sea.

Kaja Kallas, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, echoed this sentiment. She wrote on X that she had raised the issue of the Libyan vote and stressed that the decision infringes upon the sovereign rights of third states. The core of the legal dispute centers on whose claims are legitimate under international law.

Greece relies primarily on the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Article 121 of this convention grants inhabited islands that support an economic life the same exclusive economic zone rights as mainland territory. Athens argues this provision covers Crete, Rhodes, and Lesbos. It also points to a 2022 International Court of Justice ruling involving Colombia and Nicaragua, which held that overlapping interests require a fair demarcation weighing coastlines, geography, and boundary effects.

Turkey presents a different legal argument, contending that Mediterranean geography deserves special weight. Ankara asserts that if every small Greek island near the Turkish and Cypriot coasts received a full exclusive economic zone, Turkey would be largely cut off from the open sea. Because Turkey never signed the convention, it does not accept arbitration by a UN tribunal. Legal experts remain divided on what constitutes a fair division of these waters.

The political landscape in Libya has shifted since 2019, when civil war was raging and Turkey intervened militarily to support the Tripoli government against an offensive by eastern General Khalifa Hifter. Since then, a Turkish charm offensive has brought a rapprochement with Hifter's camp. Turkish firms have won reconstruction contracts worth billions, and the state oil company TPAO is working with Libya's National Oil Corporation on seismic surveys off the coast. Turkey also supplies weapons and training to Hifter's forces, which helps push back against Egyptian and Russian influence in the east.

The new agreement also poses a threat to the planned EastMed pipeline. This project is designed to carry gas from Israel and Cyprus through Greece to bolster EU energy security. The new corridor cuts across the pipeline's route. Turkey has argued that cable or pipeline projects on its claimed continental shelf need its consent. The region may eventually split into two blocs: a Turkey-Libya axis and an EU-supported grouping of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, and Israel.