Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis on Monday night promised that the Great Sea Interconnector project, which, if completed, will connect the energy grids of Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, will go ahead.

Speaking to television channel Open, he stressed that “the laying of the electricity interconnection between Greece and Cyprus and ultimately Israel is a European programme”.

“It will continue as normal. The surveys will continue in the coming period,” he said.

Asked whether Greece will issue a Navtex, an international maritime notification, regarding the surveys in the autumn, given a possible negative reaction on the part of Turkey, he stressed that there is “absolutely no reason for concern”.

Related Articles

“The Greek government’s position is that the laying of electrical cables is something which is absolutely protected by international law. It cannot be prevented. If Turkey, which aspires to become a member of the European Union, considers that it should prevent a European project, it will pay the price,” he said.

He was then asked what steps Greece may take if Turkey sends frigates into the areas of the sea where surveys will be conducted and cables will be laid, and said that “we will protect our sovereign rights and exercise them in the field”.

“All potential scenarios are ready. Greece is not going to abandon any right it has according to international law. It will exercise all its rights in the field, under any conditions, having the alliances it has,” he said.

He added that this stance is part of “a more general policy of upgrading Greece’s geopolitical position in the Mediterranean”, and that with this in mind, “Greece is in a much better position today than it was two years ago”.

Gerapetritis’ remarks come after Cypriot Finance Minister Makis Keravnos had said earlier this month that two separate studies conducted by two “serious and reliable” organisations show that the project “is not sustainable”, and that Turkey’s presence in the region had limited the progress made on the project so far.

He told Politis radio that the degree to which the project has been implemented “is directly linked to geopolitical risk”.

This “geopolitical risk”, he added, “was known from the start”, but has now become “one of the reasons, perhaps the most serious” behind the lack of progress.

“It is Turkey’s intervention, to speak very seriously and clearly, which does not allow for the seabed surveys to be completed and for the interconnection to proceed,” he said.

Earlier this year, Greek newspaper Kathimerini had reported that given the financial and geopolitical hurdles faced by the Great Sea Interconnector project, Greece’s independent transmission system operator Admie had drawn up plans to build an electricity interconnector to the country’s Dodecanese islands rather than to Cyprus.

The newspaper had written that Admie and French technology company Nexans, which has been tasked with manufacturing and installing submarine cables for the project, have been “looking for a plan B to mitigate the effects of the prolonged uncertainty and the threat of cancellation”.

This, it said, is because “there is no longer any visibility regarding the resumption of surveys in international waters, which were stopped last July following Turkey’s reactions”.

The newspaper wrote that if the project is halted due to geopolitical risks, the cost is to be shared equally between the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Cyprus, but hinted that there may be unwillingness on the Greek government’s part to admit that “geopolitical risks”, namely the possible Turkish reaction, would be the reason behind the project’s cancellation.

In addition, it wrote that Nexans is “looking for a way out”, despite having already constructed 160 kilometres worth of cables for the interconnector.

Admie denied the reports at the time.

In March, Admie had  temporarily suspended payments to Nexans for the manufacture and installation of cables for the project.

Energy Minister George Papanastasiou said then that the decision was understandable “in the context of the technical, fiscal, and geopolitical risks inherent to the project”, with it having been revealed that payments were suspended after Turkish warships had reportedly “disrupted” seabed surveys related to the project.