Greece announces plans on maritime use, irking neighboring Turkey
Greece on Wednesday announced plans for managing human activities in maritime areas, such as tourism, offshore energy drilling, fishing and environmental protection, irking neighboring Turkey, which said the plans encroach on its jurisdiction.
The announcement about Greece's Maritime Spatial Planning came after the country was rebuked by the European Court of Justice earlier this year for failing to submit the plans to the European Commission, as all coastal European Union member states are required to do. Spatial planning for sea areas is considered necessary for the sustainable use of marine resources, setting out where activities such as transport, tourism, fishing and renewable energy projects can take place, and for the protection of marine environments.
But Turkey's Foreign Ministry said some of the areas specified in Greece's plan 'violate our country's maritime jurisdiction areas in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.'
Although NATO allies, Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for years over boundaries in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, with escalating tension bringing them close to war several times in recent decades. One of the main contentions between the two is the delineation of the continental shelf – the proportion of the seabed that belongs to each country, as well as with the boundaries of each one's exclusive economic zone.
Greece has agreements in place delineating its exclusive economic zones with Italy and with Egypt, but not with Turkey.
'We would like to remind the need to avoid unilateral actions in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas such as in the Aegean and the Mediterranean,' Turkey's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that 'international maritime law encourages cooperation between coastal states in the seas in question, including concerning environmental issues, and that in this context, our country is always ready to cooperate with Greece in the Aegean Sea.'
Greece's Foreign Ministry said the Maritime Spatial Planning was separate from the delineation of the exclusive economic zone. In a series of explanatory notes posted on its website, the Foreign Ministry said it still aimed to maintain dialogue with Turkey.
'That we're solving pending issues from the past doesn't mean we don't seek Greek-Turkish dialogue. That we disagree doesn't mean that we don't talk,' the ministry said. 'Greece wants a positive climate in relations with Turkey.'
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