The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources of Egypt has issued a new map of exploration blocks that will be put to a tender. The map reassigns the position of block EGY-MED-W18 so that it does not extend beyond the 28th meridian and stays within the boundaries of Egypt’s designation of its exclusive economic zone.
The “W18” plot in question was adjacent to the area where Ankara claims sovereign rights and has unilaterally identified it as the boundary line of the supposed Turkish continental shelf. The “W18” plot started from the last point of the Greek-Egyptian demarcated EEZ and extended east beyond the 28th meridian, thus creating the conditions for possible recognition by Egypt of the “Erziges line”, which essentially completely ignores the Greek Kastellorizo complex.
The new map comes in the wake of a meeting in Cairo on Monday between Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry, where the technical details of EGY-MED-W18 were also discussed.
FM @NikosDendias & #Egypt counterpart S. #Shoukry meet in #Cairo to discuss multifaceted warm 🇬🇷🇪🇬 relations and to review recent regional dvpts following #PhiliaForum & its positive impact on advancing regional stability & cooperation pic.twitter.com/CX5EfWyA9c
— Υπουργείο Εξωτερικών (@GreeceMFA) March 8, 2021
FM Dendias said on Tuesday that it was a “technical issue” and that Athens considers the issue as “resolved” after the new map issued by the government of Egypt.
sources: kathimerini, in.gr & others
