Türkiye will continue to stand with Libya without any hesitation, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Monday during a one-day working visit to the North African country, Ednews reports citing Daily Sabah.
Holding a joint news conference with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush following a bilateral meeting in the capital Tripoli, Cavusoglu said that there is a need for a road map for a political solution in the war-torn country.
Elections in Libya must be a process decided by Libyans, and Türkiye places great importance on this, he underlined.
"We will work to evolve the calm on the ground into lasting peace," he said.
Cavusoglu also said that all countries on the Mediterranean coasts should fairly benefit from the resources in the region.
"When the conditions are met, we will open our Benghazi Consulate General," he added.
He also announced that Türkiye and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding in the hydrocarbon area and were due to sign one on gas as well.
A high-level Turkish delegation arrived in the Libyan capital Tripoli for an official visit Monday on the instructions of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Cavusoglu, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Fatih Donmez, Trade Minister Mehmet Mush, Communications Director Fahrettin Altun and Presidential Spokesperson İbrahim Kalın traveled to Libya for talks on various issues.
The Turkish officials met with their counterparts, as well as Mohamed al-Menfi, chairperson of the Libyan Presidential Council; Abdullah al-Lafi and Musa al-Koni, members of Libya's Presidential Council; Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, leader of the Tripoli-based unity government, and Khalid al-Mishri, head of Libya's High Council of State.
During the visit, the officials discussed bilateral relations and collaboration as part of 2019 agreements on security and military cooperation and on the limitation of maritime jurisdiction in the Mediterranean.
They also addressed ways to hold elections in Libya as soon as possible and the developments regarding legal infrastructure work.
According to diplomatic sources, a top agenda item was the unity of all relevant institutions around a concrete plan to preserve stability in Libya and to hold presidential and parliamentary elections based on a national consensus as soon as possible.
The delegation was also expected to visit the land allocated by the Libyan authorities for the construction of the Tripoli Embassy campus in the Tajura region.
In 2019, Ankara signed a maritime delimitation agreement with the Government of National Accord (GNA) over the Eastern Mediterranean that provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states. The two countries, Türkiye and Libya, also signed a military cooperation accord.
In August this year, Libya's capital Tripoli saw deadly clashes between forces backing Dbeibah and those loyal to his rival Fathi Bashagha, who was appointed by the Tobruk-based parliament as prime minister. It left 32 people dead and 159 injured.
Libya plunged into chaos following the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising, with myriad armed groups and foreign powers moving in to fill the power vacuum.
The violence, the worst since reaching a cease-fire in 2020, came amid military buildups by forces affiliated with Dbeibah and Bashagha, as both figures claim power and authority in the North African country.
