Can Turkiye’s Libya breakthrough reshape Eastern Mediterranean diplomacy?
Ankara wins backing from former adversaries in Libya for maritime border agreement, but other diplomatic tests remain.
Istanbul, Turkiye – Once adversaries, Turkiye and the leadership of eastern Libya are now building closer political and military ties. Ankara has also repaired relations with Egypt in the past few years after previous hostility, but a maritime dispute is testing how far those reconciliations can go.
On Wednesday, Turkiye’s Ministry of National Defence renewed its offer to sign a maritime boundary agreement with Cairo, arguing that Egypt could gain more than 15,000sq km (5,790sq miles) of maritime jurisdiction – a figure that is Ankara’s estimate – compared with a potential further agreement with Greece, with which Cairo signed a partial maritime deal in 2020.
The offer came eight days after Libya’s eastern-based parliament in Tobruk reversed years of opposition and approved a maritime agreement signed between its rival, the internationally recognised government based in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and Turkiye in 2019.
Representatives of both Libyan camps held talks in Ankara on Friday about unifying their military structures, according to Libyan media reports. Differences over political oversight remain unresolved, and no final agreement has been announced.