ATHENS 

Egypt rejected Greece’s maritime spatial planning, announced in April by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and delivered a diplomatic note, reported Greek media on Wednesday.

The note, delivered to the Greek Embassy in Cairo on July 8 but revealed by the daily Enikos for the first time on Wednesday, read: "Certain areas defined in the 'Greek Maritime Spatial Planning' (the outer limits of spatial unit No. 2 and spatial unit No. 3) and shown on the map attached to the Greek decision overlap with the scope of the EEZ and continental shelf of the Egypt Arab Republic in the Mediterranean Sea."

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (of Egypt) confirms its objection to the aforementioned intervention and emphasizes that any consequences or repercussions that may arise from the Greek decision are unacceptable," it underlined.

In the note, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry also confirmed "its openness and commitment to cooperation and consultation with the Greek side on this issue, to maintain common interests and strengthen the distinguished relations between the two countries," the daily said.

Responding to the report upon a question, Greek Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochiou later Wednesday said: "This is an expected reaction from a neighboring state, through normal diplomatic correspondence, with which the delimitation of maritime zones is pending, such as Egypt."

"This is also explicitly stated on the map; that is, in the sections where there has been no bilateral delimitation, the potential boundaries are indicated, according to the median line," she argued.  

Opposition parties' reactions 

Commenting on the development, the president of the social-democratic main opposition PASOK party, Nikos Androulakis, underlined that the government did not disclose the existence of the note, which he claimed is yet another foreign policy failure, until it was revealed by the Greek media when he spoke to broadcaster MEGA.

Speaking to broadcaster OPEN, spokesperson of the left-liberal SYRIZA party Grigoris Theodorakis said: "Egypt's verbal statement adds to the claims of Turkey and Libya and emphasizes that the policy that serves the interests of the bourgeoisie and Euro-Atlantic plans involves the country and the people in adventures."

On April 16, the Greek Foreign Ministry disclosed the country’s official Maritime Spatial Planning (MSP) map.

In the questions and answers section of the statement, the ministry underlined that the maritime areas shown on the map include the Greek-Italian EEZ delimitation agreements of 1977 and 2020 and the Greek-Egyptian agreement of 2020, while they coincide with the boundaries deriving from Greece’s Law 4001/2011 (on the operation of electricity and gas energy markets for exploration, production, and transmission networks of hydrocarbons.)

Responding to the Greek MSP, a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement said Greece's unilateral actions and claims on maritime spatial planning will have no legal consequences for Ankara.

"We reiterate that unilateral actions should be avoided in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas such as the Aegean and the Mediterranean, that international maritime law encourages cooperation between coastal states in these seas, including on environmental issues, and that in this context, our country is always ready to cooperate with Greece in the Aegean Sea," the ministry said.