Turkey issued a counter-Navtex on Friday claiming that part of the area covered by a Greek Navtex, published hours earlier for seabed surveys for the Great Sea Interconnector electricity cable between Crete and Cyprus, lies on its continental shelf.
The Greek Navtex, HA15-1411/26, covers surveys by the French-flagged vessel Abeille Marengo in the sea area southeast of Crete up to Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone. Turkey’s counter-Navtex, TURNHOS 1105/26, refers to Turkey’s continental shelf as unilaterally declared by Turkey to the United Nations on 18 March 2020, under reference A/74/757.
It says Turkish authorities have not granted permission for the survey and that all research in sea areas under Turkish jurisdiction must be coordinated with them.
Turkey has reacted in a similar way in many cases of work at sea off Cyprus, but as a rule its counter-Navtex messages have not stopped surveys or drilling.
The Greek Navtex opens the way for work to resume at sea to complete the seabed surveys along the roughly 900-kilometre route between Korakia in Crete and Kofinou in Cyprus. It remains to be seen whether Turkey will stop at its counter-Navtex or escalate, perhaps by sending warships off Kasos to obstruct the Abeille Marengo. A reaction similar to the one off Kasos in summer 2024 cannot be ruled out for now.
Greek and Cypriot sources consider such an escalation a remote possibility. They believe diplomatic groundwork involving not only the countries directly concerned but also the EU, France and the United States has largely ensured that work on the interconnector will resume and be completed without serious problems from the Turkish side. The governments of Cyprus and Greece say the project will go ahead as scheduled.
Timing unclear
By late Friday there was no update on the next moves of the vessel, which is docked in Heraklion. The Greek Navtex covers surveys that could start from 6 November, with completion planned for 6 March 2027. The date is not binding on the Italian company Next Geosolutions Europe SpA, which is contracted to the French company Nexans to complete the seabed surveys from the Kasos area to Cyprus.
Greek media gave conflicting accounts of when the surveys would start, ranging from Friday night to a few days after the Navtex was issued.
Cyprus’s payments
The Cypriot government had not issued a statement on the Greek Navtex by late Friday. President Nikos Christodoulides and Energy Minister Michalis Damianos have previously expressed support for the project and said that once the Navtex was issued, Cyprus would move to meet its financial obligations to Greece’s Independent Power Transmission Operator (IPTO) and GSI.
At this stage, these amount to 25 million euros for 2025, the same for 2026, and 25 million euros a year for 2027, 2028 and 2029.
