Seven southern European leaders that attended the MED7 conference on the island of Corsica on Thursday threw their weight behind Greece and Cyprus, who are now on the “front line” of unilateral Turkish claims, provocations and war-mongering in the eastern Mediterranean, with the increasingly Islamist and menacing Erdogan-led administration expanding its belligerence in the Near East and Libya to the high seas.
Conclusions of a “Declaration of Ajaccio” were signed by the leaders of host France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Cyprus, who urged Ankara to respect international Law and especially the UN International Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The seven leaders also called on all parties to resolve disputes through dialogue and negotiation.
“…we call on Turkey to respond to the invitation of the Government of Cyprus for delimitation negotiations in good faith, in full respect of International Law, as well as submitting the issue of delimitation of maritime boundaries to the International Court of Justice.
“We reaffirm our determination to use all adequate means at the disposal of the European Union in response to these confrontational actions,” reads the text of conclusions, and continues that “in line with the latest Informal Meeting of EU Foreign Ministers (Gymnich), we agree to speed up work on the additional listings based on the proposals tabled so far, with a view to a rapid adoption.”
The declaration, concluded: “we maintain that in absence of progress in engaging Turkey into a dialogue and unless it ends its unilateral activities, the EU is ready to develop a list of further restrictive measures that could be discussed at the European Council on September 24-25.”
