Turkey to continue defending rights in Med Sea, says foreign minister

ANKARA

Turkey will resolutely continue defending its legitimate rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, said Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Dec. 14.

Çavuşoğlu met with Fayez al-Sarraj, the head of UN-recognized Libya's Government of National Accord, at the 19th Doha Forum held in Qatar.

After the meeting, Çavuşoğlu announced in a tweet that he and al-Sarraj discussed the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and Libya on maritime boundaries.

"[We] will resolutely continue to defend our legitimate rights and interests in the Eastern Mediterranean," Çavuşoğlu said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and al-Sarraj also discussed the recently inked maritime delimitation and military and security cooperation deals, the defense ministry said on Dec. 14

Turkey's Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Güler also attended the meeting, the ministry conveyed.

"We did, and continue to do, what needed to be done about our rights and interests in the sea, within the law. We are protecting our rights based on international law," Akar told reporters after the meeting. He also said that Turkey will continue to protect its rights.

On Nov. 7, Ankara and Tripoli-based Libyan government reached two separate memorandum of understandings (MoU), one on military cooperation and the other one on maritime boundaries of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Following the military cooperation deal, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said Ankara might consider sending troops to Libya if the Libyan government made such a demand.