Mitsotakis-Erdoğan to meet in September in New York

The next milestone following Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' visit to Ankara is September in New York, where he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, Greek Foreign Affairs Minister George Gerapetritis said in an interview published Sunday.

Speaking to 'Real News' newspaper, Gerapetritis added that both leaders will also participate in the NATO Summit Meeting in Washington, and may meet there as well.

"The next milestone is the High-Level Cooperation Council (HLCC)" of Greece and Türkiye, the minister said. Mitsotakis and Erdogan agreed to promote the meeting of HLCC for the end of the year in Ankara, while by September there will be another round of political dialog, the positive agenda, and Confidence-Building Measures, in order to prepare for more of positive and concrete results, he noted.

"It is particularly significant that a normalcy is developing in our relations with Türkiye: We meet occasionally, these meetings do not necessarily always lead to a very specific, great result, and we can now even disagree, without however creating tension," the Greek FM said.
Referring to the issue of delimiting the continental shelf and the Exlusive Economic Zone (EEZ), Gerapetritis called it "a complicated technical issue with a great historical weight" that has preoccupied 64 rounds of exploratory talks without any substantial result. "Despite the value in itself of experiencing a calm period in the Aegean without violations of national air space and large migrant flows, the final resolution of the continental shelf and EEZ issue would be of outstanding importance for a long-term and viable calmness in our region," Gerapetritis underlined.

Greece's intention, he noted, is "to discuss these issues when the circumstances are right. The climate of sincerity and mutual understanding must be absolutely established, particularly through the consolidation and full application of the positive agenda agreements." 

Although basic disagreements on key issues have not been resolved, he added, "In the Greek-Turkish dialog we shall move ahead step by step [...] in order to first of all build upon the things that unite us." Furthermore, "It would be ideal to be able to reach a joint agreement on the delimitation. At any rate, what always remains is the path to a co-signatory agreement to submit this difference to international jurisdiction."

AMNA

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