Greece and Egypt are discussing extending their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) eastwards towards Cyprus after eastern Libya's parliament ratified a disputed maritime agreement with Turkey earlier this week, Greece's foreign minister said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Source: Reuters, 22 Oct 2026

Any extension of the Greece-Egypt agreement would be fully in line with international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said in a post on X — an official statement that is the primary source for what Athens announced.

Gerapetritis and Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty also reaffirmed their opposition to eastern Libya's ratification of the 2019 maritime memorandum between Turkey and Libya, saying they remained committed to international law and UNCLOS, Reuters reported. Greece, Egypt and Cyprus have long opposed the Turkey-Libya accord, arguing that it infringes on their own maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean.

The trigger was a reversal in Benghazi: Libya's eastern parliament unanimously approved the 2019 maritime border agreement that Tripoli's then Government of National Accord signed with Turkey, five years after the same eastern parliament rejected it in 2020, and it repealed the earlier resolutions, including one that cut political ties with Ankara, according to reporting by the Associated Press summarised by Newscord. Libyan lawmaker Tarek al-Jeroushi told Reuters the agreement would strengthen Libya's position as a political, military and economic partner to major powers.

The European Commission does not recognise the Turkey-Libya deal and has backed Greece and Cyprus, which consider the agreement unlawful, according to European press reporting summarised by eurotopics. Greece and Egypt signed their own agreement in 2020 delimiting an EEZ in the eastern Mediterranean, Reuters noted — the agreement Athens and Cairo now say they are discussing extending further east.