Interconnector navtex to be issued ‘as soon as possible’

A navtex will be issued “as soon as possible” to inform ships between Cyprus and Crete that seabed surveys are going ahead before the laying of cables for the Great Sea Interconnector, reports said on Tuesday. Newspaper Phileleftheros wrote that President Nikos Christodoulides, French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis have discussed the matter in recent days and agreed that a navtex should be issued at the earliest possible juncture. This, it reported, will be once the interconnector’s majority shareholder, French asset management firm Meridiam, and French cable manufacturer Nexans come to an agreement regarding “the crucial decisions for the operational part of their next actions”. It stated that these “crucial decisions” entail deciding which companies will undertake the seabed surveys and then laying out a timetable for those surveys to be conducted. Greece’s independent transmission system operator Admie, which owned the interconnector project until Meridiam purchased a majority stake in it earlier this month, was quoted as having said that around 60 per cent of the seabed surveys have been completed. The remaining 40 per cent of the impacted seabed, it said, is located in disputed waters which are claimed by both Greece and Turkey. These conflicting claims have impeded attempts to carry out seabed surveys between Cyprus and Greece before, with Turkish naval vessels being deployed in 2024 after the Italian research vessel the Ievoli Reulme strayed into what Turkey believes to be its own waters. Naval vessels escorted the research ship away from Turkey, but not before Greece, too, dispatched a number of its own naval vessels to the area. In response, the European Commission said that it “continues to expect Turkey to unequivocally commit to and promote good neighbourly relations and the peaceful settlement of disputes”. The dispute about the ownership of the waters stems from the question of whether islands generate their own exclusive economic zone (EEZ) or not. Greece and Cyprus, citing the United Nations convention on the law of the sea (Unclos), state that they do, while Turkey, which is not a signatory to Unclos, states they do not. As such, according to Turkey’s position, beyond the 12 nautical miles of territorial waters to which Turkey believes both islands are entitled, the sea between Cyprus and Crete is Turkish. By contrast, the position held by Greece and by the Republic of Cyprus is that, given that islands generate a full EEZ, the EEZs of Greece and Cyprus border one another south of Kastellorizo, Greece’s easternmost inhabited island.