Greece-Cyprus-Egypt Trilateral Summit Concluded in Cairo

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Cyprus Republic President Nicos Anastasiades and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi concluded a trilateral summit here on Saturday, with an agreement to speed up negotiations for delineating the boundaries of their respective Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

In a joint communique, the three countries underlined the "universal application of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea" and their decision to "proceed as fast as possible in our negotiations to delineate our maritime zones wherever this has not already been done". The statement also included a reference to the need to respect the sovereign rights of nations, urging Turkey to stop seismographic surveys underway within Cyprus' EEZ and avoid similar activity in the future, as well as noting the need for a comprehensive and lasting solution to the Cyprus issue, in accordance with international law.

Commenting on the results of the summit, Samaras stressed that it was a meeting "we owed to history". He said it had laid the foundations for future strategic cooperation "in the spirit of three countries linked by shared concerns about security in the Eastern Mediterranean."