FM Dendias: “Greece to expand its territorial waters South of Crete to 12 miles”

The government is considering expanding the territorial waters to 12 miles south of Crete, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias revealed on Wendesday evening, just hours after the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced that the country extends its territorial waters in the Ionian Sea from 6 to 12 nautical miles.

“The services of the Ministry are already working on the necessary steps,” Dendias stressed during his speech at the Plenary of the Parliament debating the ratification of the maritime boundaries agreements with Italy and Egypt.

Closing the debate in Parliament on the ratification of the agreements between Greece and Italy and Egypt on the delimitation of the EEZ, Dendias noted that the competent services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are already studying the maps, so that in the near future there will be an expansion of the territorial waters and in the area covered by the Agreement with Egypt.

He said that there have been already given instructions to oceanographers to start the work, “so that we can expand the territorial waters within the Exclusive Economic Zone agreement with Egypt. And this will be done. For the other areas that we do not have an Exclusive Economic Zone, we will proceed to the extent that this is possible in the negotiations and from there and beyond we will proceed to similar extensions there as well.”

Dendias said every word in the agreements resulted from detailed review.

He added that “it was a deliberate choice not to include a clause of optional recourse to the international court at The Hague in case of a future controversy in the agreement with Egypt, unlike the agreement with Italy, to prevent a possible use of it by a third country to promote its own interests.”

As to the area covered by the agreement with Egypt (at the 27.59th meridian), the minister said the specific zone was included “in order to be able to delimit the remaining part of Rhodes, of Kastellorizo and of the Megisti complex in a future agreement.”

In terms of contacts he made on expanding the territorial sea area from 6 nautical miles to 12 in the Ionian Sea, Dendias said he had informed both the EU and Albania’s prime minister, with whom he will meet shortly to discuss the outstanding delimiting of a zone with Albania.