Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks in Istanbul on Friday with head Libya’s Government of National Unity (GNU) Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah on the latest developments in the North African country.
The officials discussed bilateral relations between their countries and the upcoming elections in Libya.
They tackled cooperation between Ankara and Tripoli, especially in the field of energy, according to sources in the Turkish presidency.
Dbeibah’s visited Istanbul days after head of the High National Electoral Commission (HNEC), Emad Al-Sayeh, traveled to Ankara where he said that the elections were “an important and crucial for the political future of Libya.”
He met with members of Türkiye’s Supreme Election Council and its president, Ahmed Yener.
He inspected equipment used in election management and listened to presentations explaining the institutional structure of the Council, its legislations, and the systems and technical procedures by which the electoral process was managed during the Turkish legislative and presidential elections in May.
Meanwhile, reports said that the Turkish parliament is planning on studying a number of agreements it failed to approve during the previous legislative year.
They include a Memorandum of Understanding signed between Ankara and Tripoli in October 2022 that covers energy exploration.
Reports confirmed that Erdogan had sent the MoU to parliament for approval in June shortly after the Turkish elections.
The parliament was in recess until October.
The MoU is an extension of the security agreement signed in November 2019 which demarcated Türkiye and Libya’s shared maritime borders.
It aims to promote cooperation between oil and gas companies to exploit energy resources in Libya, and to work on the exploration and development of oil and gas fields within Libyan territory.
The MoU was rejected by several Mediterranean countries, namely Greece and Egypt, who deemed the deal illegal given that it was signed after the GNU’s term had ended.
During its efforts to improve relations with Egypt, Türkiye sought to reassure it over the presence of pro-Ankara mercenaries in western Libya and cooperation with the Tripoli-based government over energy.
Türkiye is working to ease tensions with Greece. Last week, both sides resumed political consultations after a long hiatus to solve contentious issues in the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean.
