Greek PM Expected to Brief Leaders at MED-9 Summit on ‘5X5’ Initiative

Athens’ proposal to bring together five eastern Mediterranean states to focus on five themes, dubbed the “5X5 initiative”, will reportedly be detailed on Monday during a MED-9 summit in Slovenia by participating Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Greek diplomacy this month has quietly “floated” the idea of such a summit to ostensibly deal with, among others, the delimitation of maritime zones in the east-central and eastern Mediterranean. It’s noteworthy that Greece wants to promote such an initiative with the participation of Turkey, its standing and unbridled rival vis-à-vis delineating such zones, along with Cyprus – of whom Turkey illegally occupies 37% of its territory – as well as Libya. The fifth participant would be Egypt.

Besides the issue of delimitating continental shelves and EEZs, the other five major areas of discussion would be tackling irregular migration flows, protection of the marine environment, connectivity and civil defense.

In terms of the MED-9 summit, developments surrounding the situation in Gaza and Europe’s competitiveness. The gathering will mark the first by EU leaders since the signing of a Mideast peace plan last week to end the conflict in Gaza.