The resumption of surveys for the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnector (GSI) remains on hold pending the issuance of the disputed NAVTEX, even though the necessary preparations have been complete for days and the French vessel Abeille Marengo has been in the port of Heraklion since last Tuesday, waiting for the signal to set off.
The question is not whether the final outstanding issues have been resolved and everything is ready for the vessel to sail to the area around Kasos, but what remains before the green light can be given, when that will happen, and whether anything has changed from the original plan.
Whether the contacts between Paris and Ankara have borne fruit will, of course, become clear in practice. It is certain, however, that the French side has reached some kind of understanding with Turkey as part of the extensive “communication and information” process reportedly undertaken with all countries in the region, including Ankara, given that the surveys concern areas of undelimited continental shelf.
Days are passing, however, and it is telling that the request for permission for the Abeille Marengo was submitted on 8 October, more than three weeks ago, with no developments since. Under the usual procedure, a NAVTEX is issued within about 15 days of the relevant request being submitted.
Although the application would presumably not have been given the green light if consultations between the French side and Ankara had not been completed, the situation is beginning to remind some people of previous cases, such as April 2025, when, despite leaks from the Foreign Ministry that the NAVTEX would be issued within days, it was ultimately postponed indefinitely.
The next steps, Kasos and the Turkish-Libyan memorandum
What happens next will become clear in practice. Competent sources insist that the procedure at the Interministerial Committee for the Granting of Marine Survey Permits (ECHAETH) will be completed this week, after which the Foreign Ministry’s decision will be forwarded to the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service to issue the notice allowing the vessel’s surveys to begin.
According to the plan, as described by the same sources, the surveys will resume where they were interrupted in July 2024: at the boundary of Kasos’s six-nautical-mile territorial waters. That is where the results of the intensive contacts between Paris and Ankara will be put to the test.
Government sources are optimistic and believe that the developments surrounding ratification of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum will not affect the prior understanding between the French and Turkish sides, and that Turkey has received the Rubio message: it is unthinkable for two NATO allies and partners to be led into a crisis.
The political dimension
At the political level, given how events have unfolded and the momentum they have acquired, the government cannot back down.
Any further delay will fuel fresh criticism at home that, even now, with Paris and Meridiam involved in the project, the government is hesitating to move forward with the GSI, which has become symbolic of the exercise of the country’s sovereign rights and serves as a barometer of the implementation on the ground of the Greek-Egyptian agreement and the partial delimitation of the exclusive economic zone between Athens and Cairo in 2020.
Other countries with a strong geopolitical role in the Eastern Mediterranean are also watching developments closely. Their stance is of direct interest to Athens, particularly at the present juncture, with Israel foremost among them.
EMC surveys proceed as planned
All this is happening as surveys by the other research vessel, the Kobi Reugg, for the EMC fibre-optic cable—which is intended to connect Asia with Europe via Saudi Arabia and Greece—are proceeding without interference in almost the same area and along the same route.
This is despite a sustained “war” of NAVTEX notices in recent days over surveys being conducted by the vessel south-east of Crete under a permit issued by Greece. Turkish authorities insist that the surveys are being carried out with Turkey’s consent, implying that there has been prior coordination with the vessel, without specifying whether this involved simply being informed about the surveys or also requesting a notice from the Antalya station.
In any event, the vessel, which had applied to the Greek authorities for a survey permit and the issuance of a NAVTEX, is continuing with its scheduled surveys in the area it had notified.