Senior defense officials from Israel, Greece and Cyprus met in Athens on Thursday and agreed to set up a joint working group for their defense industries, while declaring a recently ratified maritime agreement between Turkey and Libya legally void, the Defense Ministry confirmed, The Jerusalem Post reports.
The trilateral meeting brought together the heads of defense policy from the three ministries, along with other senior officials, and focused on expanding military cooperation and on shared security challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to a joint statement released by the ministry’s spokesperson.
The three countries called defense cooperation a central pillar of their partnership, building on the joint declaration adopted when their leaders met in Jerusalem on December 22, 2025. They also reiterated the leaders’ invitation for other like-minded countries to join the framework.
The talks covered regional security assessments, defense-industrial cooperation and innovation, maritime security, including the protection of sea lanes and critical infrastructure, and disaster preparedness and civil protection.
The officials agreed to establish a trilateral defense-industrial working group to foster partnerships among their defense industries, explore joint development and production, and improve interoperability between their militaries, the statement said.
The three ministries said the maritime memorandum between Turkey and Libya, which Libya’s House of Representatives ratified on October 20, infringes on the sovereign rights of third countries, ignores international norms on maritime jurisdiction, and cannot have any legal effect on other states.
They also voiced opposition to unilateral claims, coercion, threats of force, and destabilizing military buildups, saying no country in the region should serve as a platform for actions that threaten regional security. The three reaffirmed their support for Cyprus’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in line with UN Security Council resolutions, and stressed adherence to the law of the sea as reflected in customary international law.
