The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Gerapetritis, had a telephone conversation with his Libyan counterpart, Naila Mangoush, yesterday.

According to diplomatic sources, Giorgos Gerapetritis emphasized the need to restart relations between Athens and Tripoli and to open direct channels of communication. Further, Mr. Gerapetritis underlined Greece’s decision to upgrade its diplomatic representation in Libya, with the accreditation of a Greek ambassador in Tripoli.

Both Foreign Ministers referred to the historic ties of the two nations and agreed to meet in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

The relations between Athens and Tripoli seem to be changing, with the government now having a diplomatic “presence” in Libya. It is recalled that the cause of the tension between Greece and Libya was the signing of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

And this, because the Sarraj government decided to contribute to Ankara’s effort to create fait accompli, in the context of enforcing the “Blue Homeland” narrative, and signed the “illegal and non-existent” – according to Athens – memorandum delimiting maritime zones with the Erdogan government.

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Greece’s diplomatic absence from Tripoli was characterized as problematic and against the background of the movements of the interim government of Dbeiba in Libya, which had followed a path of close rapprochement and alliance with Turkey, even signing a second agreement for the exploitation of potential deposits in the region that was defined by the first Turko-Libyan Memorandum.

And although the – again interim – government of National Unity was formed on March 15, 2021, until recently, Athens did not have a different approach from the one it had against the Dbeiba government, since the new Tripoli government has still not revoked the Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

For these reasons, after all, the visit of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs and current Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nikos Dendias, to Tripoli in November 2022 had turned into a diplomatic incident, with the then head of Greek diplomacy departing from the Libyan capital, refusing to get off the plane to avoid meeting his Libyan counterpart, Naila Mangoush.

Nikos Dendias, in fact, had made it clear, according to diplomatic sources, that it was not his intention to meet anyone from the interim government of Libya, whose term had expired, and for Athens, as for a number of other countries, it did not have the legitimacy to sign agreements such as the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

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