Greece
Malliotakis on the Greece–Cyprus cable: “Erdoğan cannot hold the Eastern Mediterranean hostage”
Greek-American Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis said the US and NATO must stand with Greece, Cyprus and Israel against Turkish aggression, on the day the Abeille Marengo sailed for the cable surveys.
“Erdoğan cannot hold the energy future of the Eastern Mediterranean hostage.” With this phrase, Greek-American Republican congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis took a stand on the Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnector (GSI), on the day the survey vessel Abeille Marengo sailed from Heraklion for the seabed surveys.
In a post on X on Tuesday, November 10, the representative for New York’s 11th district described Turkey’s bullying tactics and threats as a factor that undermines the region’s stability and energy security. “The US and NATO must stand with Greece, Cyprus and Israel against Turkish aggression,” she wrote.
Malliotakis, the daughter of immigrants from Greece and Cuba and a member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, attached to the post a Fox News report of October 1. In it Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, speaking on the margins of the UN General Assembly, accused Ankara of obstructing the project because of the “illegal claims” it advances on the delimitation of the EEZ. Kombos had also expressed concern at the possibility of Turkey obtaining American F-35s, saying that this upsets the balance in the region.
The project, costing about €1.9 billion, provides for a submarine cable more than 1,200 kilometres long with a capacity of up to 1,000 megawatts. The European Union has committed €657 million for the Crete–Cyprus section, which will end Cyprus’s energy isolation, while in a later phase the cable is planned to reach Israel.
A few minutes before Ankara’s new move
The Greek-American congresswoman’s intervention came shortly before Ankara made a new move. About twenty minutes later, the Turkish Navy posted NAVTEX 1127/26, in which it presents the Abeille Marengo’s surveys as work in the “Turkish continental shelf” carried out “with the consent of the Turkish authorities”, as we reported. Athens, by contrast, insists that only Greece and Cyprus have given permission, something Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis repeated the same day, estimating that the journey will be completed “without turbulence”.
It is not the first time that Malliotakis has taken a position in favour of Greece and Cyprus against Turkey. She is among the members of Congress who have opposed arms concessions to Ankara, such as the F-35s and engines for the KAAN fighter, at a time when the Trump administration appears open to such a prospect.
