On August 6, 2020, Greece and Egypt signed an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) agreement in Cairo delimiting their maritime boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean. This recent move came after Turkey had temporarily suspended the activities of its seismic research vessel Oruç Reis as a de-escalatory gesture to open up space for diplomatic negotiations with Greece as part of Germany’s mediation efforts. As such, Athens’s recent move undermined these efforts and once more bore witness to Greece’s intransigence.
The dispute over the maritime boundary between Greece and Turkey has been ongoing since 1974. As a response to the Libya-Turkey maritime deal, Egypt and Greece signed a maritime treaty creating an exclusive economic zone for oil and gas drilling rights in the Mediterranean sea. The deal establishes “partial demarcation of the sea boundaries between the two countries, and that the remaining demarcation would be achieved through consultations.” Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry and Greek Nikos Dendias signed the deal in Cairo on August 6, it was ratified by the Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi on October 10 and the Greek Parliament on August 27. The existing status quo is unstable and does not favour either side. It poisons bilateral and regional relations and holds hostage the multiple benefits that could be generated from the exploitation of the seabed resources in the disputed maritime area. Given the recurring tensions and vastly overlapping maritime claims, the next maritime boundaries to be determined should be between Greece and Libya, on the one hand, and Greece and Turkey, on the other.
On March 2021, after Turkey expressed its will to make an agreement on maritime borders with Egypt, the latter discussed cooperation in eastern Mediterranean with Greece and aimed for further coordination in other areas such as economic, military and security matters.
