#eez

I touch on it briefly in the book, but our 3 titular merfolk in Thirsty Mermaids met when they were 2 little, abandoned merkids and 1 very powerful, very tiny sea witchling.

Greece and Egypt signed a maritime border deal on Thursday, amid heightened tensions with Turkey over natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The delimitation of sea zones “allows both countries to move forward in maximizing the utilization of the resources available in the exclusive economic zone, especially promising oil and gas reserves,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said after signing the pact, in a joint press conference with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Cairo.

Athens and Cairo have been locked in talks on their sea boundaries for 15 years, but the need for an agreement became more pressing after a border-mapping deal signed late last November between Turkey and the Tripoli-based Libyan government. Many in the international community denounced the Turkish-Libyan agreement, with the U.S. State Department calling it “unhelpful and provocative.”

Greece aims to block Turkish aspirations, as Ankara said it would proceed soon with drilling in disputed sea areas that Greece regards as its own. In June, Athens also signed an agreement establishing an exclusive economic zone with Italy, resolving longstanding issues over fishing rights in the Ionian Sea.

Greek officials said the deal with Cairo nullified the one between Ankara and Tripoli, while Dendias said the agreement with Egypt is “within the framework of international law.“

The agreement “creates a new reality in the Eastern Mediterranean, as it restores legality in the region — a legality that the illegal and groundless Turkish-Libyan memorandum sought to challenge,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.