Mitsotakis tells UN Security Council Turkey-Libya memorandum is illegal

The memorandum at the UN

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis used an open debate of the UN Security Council, held under Greece's presidency of the body, to attack the Turkey-Libya memorandum. He called it a flagrant violation of the international law of the sea, saying it is illegal, arbitrary and contrary to geography itself. The debate, held on 29 October 2026, was titled maintaining international peace and security, with emerging technologies and maritime security as its focus.

Greece's position on maritime delimitation

Mitsotakis said Greece and Libya are natural neighbours with opposite coasts, and that under the international law of the sea they have the right to delimit their maritime zones through an agreement. He contrasted that with the Turkey-Libya arrangement, which he said was built on a coastline that does not exist between the two countries. He stressed the point directly in his remarks.

“On the contrary, Turkey and Libya do not have, I repeat, do not have opposing or adjacent coasts. Yet they tried to create between them an artificial maritime border.”

A map and a comparison

Mitsotakis showed the UN members a map of the area to explain what he described as the absurdity of the memorandum. According to the reports, the memorandum ignores Crete, and he argued that Turkey and Libya are drawing exclusive economic zone boundaries as if the Greek islands between them did not exist. To illustrate the point, he asked members to imagine Greece and Malta delimiting exclusive economic zones as if Sicily did not exist.