The Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Libyan Prime Minister, Abdul-Hamid Dbeibah, stressed the significance of the maritime Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in a joint press conference after a meeting of the Libya-Turkey Strategic Cooperation Council in Ankara on Monday.
Erdogan received the Libyan Prime Minister at the Presidential Complex in Beştepe, Ankara, with an accompanying delegation of Foreign and Interior Ministers as well as 12 other ministers in a formal ceremony.
The visit is the third for Dbeibah outside Libya this month as the Prime Minister of the Libyan Government of National Unity. He first went to Kuwait and then to the UAE before arriving in Turkey to discuss bilateral relations.
After the meeting, Erdogan said that they had agreed to hold a regional conference for all parties to call for dialogue and cooperation in Eastern Mediterranean in a way that preserves the rights of all states.
He added that they had signed five new MoUs with the Libyan Government of National Unity, which included education, energy, media and reconstruction fields as Libyan and Turkish officials signed a protocol for the beginning of building a new power plant and an MoU for three other power plants as well as an MoU for building a new passengers lounge at the Tripoli International Airport.
Erdogan also said that they had signed an MoU for building a shopping center in Tripoli, in addition to an MoU for strategic cooperation in media.
Erdogan and Dbeibah also signed the joint statement of the first meeting of the Libya-Turkey Strategic Cooperation Council as Dbeibah said that Turkish firms will have the biggest role in reconstruction projects in Libya.
“We look forward to hosting the next meeting of the high ranking council in Tripoli, and we appreciate Turkey’s support for Libya, especially in ceasefire measures and for holding the next elections on time.” Dbeibah said.
Erdogan stressed that the support of Ankara to the legitimate government in Libya helped save Tripoli from collapsing and hindered new massacres as well as ensured the ceasefire implementation.
The Turkish President added that those who supported the coup and putschists in Libya are partners in the massacres, adding that the mass graves found in Tarhouna are evidence of those crimes.
“Turkey will continue its support for the Government of National Unity in Libya as it did with the previous legitimate governments because its goal would always be supporting sovereignty and stability, urging the international community to provide honest support to Libya to hold elections on time.” Erdogan reiterated.
Erdogan and Dbeibah also discussed boosting trade and the speedy return of Turkish private sector companies to work in Libya, explaining that Ankara would provide Libya with 150.000 Coronavirus vaccine doses as well as necessary medicines needed to limit the spread and damage of Covid-19 pandemic.
