Greek Prime Minister confronts Turkish-Libyan maritime deal at UN Security Council

During a high-level UN Security Council meeting on October 29, 2026, held under the Greek presidency, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis condemned the 2019 Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum. Using maps to illustrate his point, Mitsotakis argued that the agreement is illegal and arbitrarily disregards geography by ignoring the sovereign rights of Greek islands such as Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos, and Kasos. He emphasized that international law cannot be applied selectively and that bilateral agreements cannot override the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

In response, Turkey’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Ahmet Yildiz, defended the memorandum, stating that the Council is not a tribunal for maritime delimitation and that the agreement remains in force. Representatives from Cyprus, along with Greece, rejected the deal as null and void. Tensions escalated further when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, speaking at an event in Ankara, issued a sharp statement warning that Turkey is determined to neutralize those who obstruct its national objectives.

Greece and its supporters maintain that the memorandum violates fundamental principles of international law, while Turkey persists in its stance, calling for a regional conference on the Eastern Mediterranean. The diplomatic confrontation marks a significant deterioration in recent bilateral relations between Athens and Ankara.