In the immediate future, Athens is expected to respond to the verbal note from Egypt in which it protested the overlap of its EEZ by the Maritime Spatial Planning that Greece had announced as the outermost potential limits of its maritime jurisdiction. We recall that Egypt’s protest, which had been submitted to the Greek embassy in Cairo, became known on August 6, the day of the official visit of Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Badr Abdelatty, to our country. The timing had coincided with the completion of five years since the designation of a partial EEZ between Greece and Egypt.
The Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Lana Zochios, during yesterday’s briefing of diplomatic correspondents, argued that Egypt’s reaction “was expected” and came as a response to Athens’ announcement of the Maritime Spatial Planning, while she characterized the relations between the two countries as very good, as they are based on a “strategic partnership” that constitutes a “pillar of stability” in the Eastern Mediterranean region.
The two countries are expected in the coming period to put forward for consultation the delineation of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), as stipulated by the provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which both accept.
Greece and Egypt: How they will resolve the Sinai Monastery property issue
Until then, Athens and Cairo are expected to resolve a “particularly complex” problem, the issue of the monastic property of the Holy Sinai Monastery. As the Foreign Ministry spokesperson reiterated once again, the Greek government is not involved in the intra-ecclesiastical dispute that has been troubling the historic monastery recently. However, as she clarified, since Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis became involved in the matter with his trip to Cairo, he maintains constant contact with his counterpart, Mr. Abdelatty, in order to definitively settle the ownership status of the Sinai Monastery. Furthermore, Ms. Zochios expressed the conviction that “it is significant that we have established a strategic relationship with Egypt to lead us to a positive outcome”.
