Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday said that the government will soon submit a bill extending Greece’s territorial waters in the Ionian Sea from 6 to 12 nautical miles.
Mitsotakis said Greece would thereby exercise an “inalienable sovereign right” in line with Article 3 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea.
He was quoted by greekcitytimes.com as saying that Greece could in the future extend its territorial waters in other maritime areas, in accordance with the Convention on the Law of the Sea and the application of the median line where the distance between the two shores is smaller than 24 miles.
Mitsotakis made the comments while speaking during a debate on Greece’s maritime boundaries agreement with Egypt and a separate one with Italy. The two deals will be put to vote on Thursday.
Speaking of the accords, he said “they have major historical and political significance.”
Mitsotakis said Italy and Albania had been officially informed about the plan and a bill on the matter would be submitted to parliament very soon.
Erdogan Warns Greece to Avoid the Path to Ruin
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned he would make “no concessions” in the eastern Mediterranean and that Ankara is determined to do whatever is necessary to obtain its rights in the Black Sea, Aegean and Mediterranean.
Speaking at an event on Wednesday commemorating the 11th-century military victory by Seljuk Turks over the Byzantine empire at Malazgirt, Erdogan also called on Turkey’s counterparts to avoid mistakes that he said would bring their destruction, reported aljajazeera.com
“We don’t have our eye on someone else’s territory, sovereignty and interests, but we will make no concessions on that which is ours,” Erdogan said, urging Greece to “avoid wrongs that will be the path to ruin”.
“We will not compromise what is ours… We are determined to do whatever is necessary.”
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece said they wanted to solve the matter through dialogue following separate talks with their German counterpart, Heiko Maas.
Meanwhile, France is joining military exercises with Italy, Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said on Wednesday
“The eastern Mediterranean is turning into an area of tension. Respect for international law must be the rule and not the exception,” Parly said on Twitter, adding that it “should not be a playground for the ambitions of some”. /Compiled from wires- argumentum. al
