ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece and Egypt, which angered Turkey by reaching an agreement on natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, will welcome more decisive U.S. involvement in the region under President-elect Joe Biden, the Greek prime minister said on Wednesday.
“Both Greece and Egypt will receive positively a more decisive role of the United States in the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at a news conference with visiting Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Cairo and Athens sealed an accord for the partial demarcation of maritime boundaries in August, giving them rights over natural resources in the Mediterranean.
Mitsotakis said the accord showed that countries which respect international law and good neighbourly relations can achieve results to the benefit of their people. He said both Greece and Egypt are willing to expand the accord.
Turkey, which is at odds with Greece over overlapping claims to energy resources in the Mediterranean, says the pact infringes on its own continental shelf.
The agreement also overlaps with maritime zones Turkey agreed with Libya last year, decried as illegal by Greece.
(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou and George Georgiopoulos; Editing by Alex Richardson and Peter Graff)
