Every few days, a new Navtex or anti-Navtex makes the news in Cyprus, usually alongside research vessels, cable projects and continental shelf claims. Yet the system behind these notices was designed for an entirely practical purpose: telling ships at sea about dangers, weather and rescue operations along their route.
What is a Navtex
NAVTEX is an acronym for NAVigational TEXt messages. It is an international automated service that sends navigational and meteorological warnings and forecasts, as well as urgent marine safety information, to ships.
The system was adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in 1987. It forms part of the Global Maritime Distress and Safety System (GMDSS), and receivers must be carried on certain vessels under the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS).
How the system works
The international Navtex system operates worldwide on a single fixed frequency of 518 kHz, and all broadcasts on it must be in English. Because every coastal station transmits on the same frequency, each one is given its own 10-minute time slot within a four-hour schedule. Urgent messages, such as distress information or gale warnings, can be broadcast at any time.
Messages print out automatically on a dedicated receiver on board. To make sure crews always receive the most important information, receivers cannot reject navigational warnings, meteorological warnings, search and rescue information and certain special warnings.
Who issues Navtex messages
The International Telecommunication Union delegated authority for coordinating the Navtex frequencies to the IMO in 1995, and the IMO Navtex Coordinating Panel oversees the global service. Individual states broadcast warnings through their own coastal stations.
In Cyprus, notices are issued by the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Larnaca. The JRCC has also issued anti-Navtex notices in response to Turkish ones. Turkey’s notices typically come from its Antalya station, and Greece’s from the Heraklion station of the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service.
What is an anti-Navtex
An anti-Navtex is a counter-notice issued in response to another state’s Navtex, disputing its validity. It is not a separate technical category. It uses the same system to tell mariners that the original notice should be disregarded.
In one example, an anti-Navtex from the Heraklion station described a Turkish Navtex for the research vessel Oruç Reis as unauthorised and the Turkish activity as illegal, as it concerned an area of the Greek continental shelf. In 2020, the JRCC in Larnaca issued an anti-Navtex stating that a Turkish Navtex concerned unauthorised and illegal activity by the drilling ship Yavuz in Block 6 of Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Turkey uses the same tool in the opposite direction. It has responded to Navtex notices issued by Nicosia with counter-Navtex notices declaring the original notification invalid and without legal force.
Why Navtex has become a political tool
The disputes stem from overlapping maritime claims. Issuing a Navtex for an area is, in practice, a statement that a state considers itself responsible for that area. A counter-notice is a statement that it does not accept the other side’s claim.
Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused Turkey of “abusing the NAVTEX service to project its unfounded claims” in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey, for its part, maintains that parts of certain survey areas fall within the Turkish continental shelf and require its authorisation.
The latest exchanges
Recent Navtex exchanges have centred on undersea cable projects. In October, Turkey issued two notices for areas through which the electricity interconnector cable will pass and where the vessel Abeille Marengo will conduct surveys.
Greece issued a Navtex for the Abeille Marengo’s surveys on 6 November, and Ankara responded swiftly with a counter-Navtex. On 10 November, Turkey issued a further Navtex stating that the vessel’s cable installation research would take place between 10 November 2026 and 19 March 2027.
Athens dismissed the notice as “irrelevant”. Greek Foreign Ministry sources said that Greece and Cyprus were the only countries to receive a request for authorisation, and that the vessel sailed in accordance with the Greek Navtex.
With information from the International Maritime Organization
