Ankara(ANN)-Somalia has invited Turkey to explore for oil in its waters as it has done with Libya in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday, on his flight back from a Libya summit in Berlin, Turkish TV Channel, NTV reported.
“There is an offer from Somalia. They are saying: ‘There is oil in our seas. You are carrying out these maritime operations with Libya in the East Mediterranean Sea, but you can also do them here.’ This is very important for us,” Erdogan said.
In November, Turkey signed a maritime delimitation deal with Libya’s internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) in a move that infuriated Greece and Cyprus.
Athens has been at odds with Ankara over offshore resources off the coast of the divided island of Cyprus.
According to the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turkey’s bilateral trade volume with Somalia was $144 million in 2017, $187 million in 2018 and $206 million in the first 10 months of 2019.
A Turkish military plane carrying Turkish citizens and Somalis wounded in the terror attack in Somalia on Saturday has landed in Ankara today, said Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence in a Twitter post.