On 26 April, the International Crisis Group (ICG) published a report titled ‘Rethinking gas diplomacy in the eastern Mediterranean’, in which it sheds light on the region’s major gas discoveries over the past decade and how they raised hopes that ‘gas diplomacy’ could dramatically reshape relations among countries in the basin, despite its limitations. In a special section on Libya, the report argues that a recent MoU signed between Ankara and Tripoli to pave the way for joint Libyan-Turkish offshore projects could lead to tensions with Egypt, Greece, and other EU members, who have denounced it as ‘illegitimate’. If acted upon, the move would prompt a response ‘both at a bilateral level and at the level of the European Union and NATO’, according to Greek officials. Pointing to an earlier agreement between Turkey and Libya’s UN-recognised government in 2019, in which the former committed to offer military support to Tripoli in exchange for favourable terms on maritime delimitation, the report further argues that Turkey’s efforts aim to ‘counter-balance regional economic and political blocs that it sees as impinging on its interests’.
Read the full report here.