Egypt and Greece will ratify agreements on their maritime boundaries as early as next week, according to Athens. The said ideal has reignited confrontations with Ankara.
Turkey had signed a similar agreement with Libya which had been disputed by Athens and Cairo. Egypt, Libya, Greece and Turkey are contesting maritime boundaries in the Mediterranean.
The Egypt-Greece sea boundary accord began on the 6th of August and lawmakers in Cairo ratified it on the 18th of August. The last stage of ratification by Greek lawmakers will take place by the end of August, according to Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas.
Turkey maintains that this new blue economic agreement infringes on its coastlines and has commissioned a survey of its continental shelf between Crete and Cyprus.
The blue economy is one of the new areas many countries are looking to diversify and improve their earning potential. The east Mediterranean has many unexplored coastlines. The coastline is rich in natural gas.
Such as the Zohr coastline found off Egypt, suspected of having the largest gas field in the Mediterranean.
Greece and Cyprus had also discovered natural gas deposits between their joint coastline since 2011 and both nations lay claim to it.
Turkey on her part has been challenging these claims. Particularly, those of Nicosia saying that the rights Turkish Cypriots are not being respected contrary to the agreements of the island-state in 1960 only to leave three years later. As Cyprus is now run by an internationally recognised government which comprises Greek Cypriots.