French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” sails through EEZ block 8

French aircraft carrier “Charles de Gaulle” sailed on Tuesday through Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) block 8, close to the Turkish drillship “Yavuz”.

As the Cyprus News Agency learns, the French aircraft carrier, escorted by six accompanying vessels, continued its course due west of EEZ block 8, off the coast of Cyprus.

On January 18, Turkey sent “Yavuz” to block 8, which is licensed to ENI – Total consortium for hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation activities.

“The French aircraft carrier, escorted by six accompanying vessels, continued its course due west of EEZ block 8, off the coast of Cyprus.”

Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state. In light of Turkey’s continued illegal drilling activities in the eastern Mediterranean, the EU expressed solidarity with Cyprus, regarding the respect of its sovereignty and sovereign rights in accordance with international law.

The block underlines that that delimitation of exclusive economic zones and continental shelf should be addressed through dialogue and negotiation in good faith, in full respect of international law and in accordance with the principle of good neighborly relations.

On February 4, RELEX, the European Council’s Working Party of Foreign Relations Counsellors, reached an agreement to add two individuals to its sanctions list, in relation to Turkey’s illegal activities in Cyprus’ EEZ.

France’s stance

Earlier in January, France’s ambassador to Cyprus, Dumont, expressed France’s strong opposition to Turkey’s illegal activities in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and described the Turkish-Libyan Memorandum of Understanding as a pseudo-agreement, stressing the need for Turkey to respect the international law.

Further, the Ambassador noted that the settlement of the issues that have come up due to Tukey’s stance in the Eastern Mediterranean need to be political while referring to the EU measures against Ankara, she noted that “we support Cyprus in this because we think that it seems that it is the only way to get Turkey to step back and this is our objective. Our objective is not to put more and more sanctions against Turkey but to have Turkey respect international law,” she said.