On 22 December 2019, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs, Conservative lawyer Nikos Dendias, travelled to Benghazi to meet the ministers designated by the Tobruk House of Representatives and their military leader, Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar. He then moved on to Cairo and Cyprus.

Simultaneously, during a ceremony at the Gölcük Naval shipyard, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the decision to expedite Turkey’s submarine construction program. The 6 New Type 214 submarines which Turkey is building with German Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW) should be near completion.

Under the agreement signed with the Government of National Accord (GNA) headed by Fayez Al-Sarraj, in addition to military ports in occupied Cyprus, Turkey could have access to a home port in Libya, from where it could extend its influence over the entire eastern Mediterranean.

After the delivery of Turkish military equipment to Tripoli flown in by a civilian Boeing 747-412, Field Marshal Haftar proclaimed that he would not hesitate to shoot down any civilian aircraft carrying weapons for the GNA.