Waves Larger than Bilateral Relations. The Albanian Greek Maritime Border Dispute

Abstract

The maritime border dispute is one of contentious issues between Albania and Greece as the delimitation of the continental shelf at the Ionian Sea has been of strategic priority for both countries. Bilateral relations hit rock bottom after the Constitutional Court of Albania nullified the initial agreement (2010), and it took more than a decade to (publicly) relaunch the process of having the maritime borders demarcated. A new agreement–even as a verdict by the International Court of Justice–would bear the parties with mutual benefits: Albania would avoid a possible veto over its EU accession from Greece, while Greece, amid growing tensions with Türkiye over the Aegean, would delimitate (and possibly extend) its maritime borders with Albania. The rivalry between Athens and Ankara over the East Mediterranean, the economic potentials (fossil fuels) of the sea as well as the race for influence in the Western Balkans supplement this border dispute with additional foreign policy perspectives that go beyond Albanian–Greek bilateral relations.