Erdoğan meets top Libyan leader in New York

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the chairperson of the Presidential Council of Libya met Wednesday in New York, where they are both attending the 76th session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Erdoğan and Mohammad Younes Menfi held a closed-door meeting at the newly opened Türkevi Center, or Turkish House, across the U.N. headquarters.

Turkey's Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, National Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairperson Binali Yıldırım were also present during the meeting.

Libya has recently witnessed positive developments following a breakthrough in which rival parties agreed on Feb. 5 on a unified new executive authority to govern in the run-up to the Dec. 24 national elections.

Libyans hope the new authority will end years of civil war that has engulfed the country since the ouster and killing of strongman Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.

On Nov. 27, 2019, the internationally recognized Libyan government signed a security cooperation agreement and demarcation of a maritime border with Turkey.

The Turkey-Libya deal on maritime delimitation has provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states. Accordingly, the attempts by the Greek government to appropriate huge parts of Libya's continental shelf, since a political crisis hit the North African country in 2011, have been averted.

The agreement also confirmed that Turkey and Libya are maritime neighbors. The delimitation starts from Turkey’s southwestern coast of Fethiye-Marmaris-Kaş and extends to the Derna-Tobruk-Bordia coastline of Libya.

Furthermore, within the scope of the security agreement, Turkey has started providing military training to Libyan soldiers.

Turkey had backed the internationally recognized Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), against the eastern-based forces of putschist Gen. Khalifa Haftar, supported by Russia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France.