Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Turkey on Wednesday to remove any threat to Greek-Turkish relations.
Speaking in Ankara during talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as part of the 6th High-Level Cooperation Council, Mitsotakis said: "It is time to remove any threat from our relations. If not now, when?"
He also reaffirmed Greece's position on minorities, including the Muslim minority of Thrace, under the Treaty of Lausanne, calling for them to serve as "bridges of friendship between our peoples."
Erdogan, for his part, described the disputes in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean as "complex, but not insoluble if there is a will for dialogue."
The Turkish president stressed that Turkey's participation in European defense initiatives "serves common interests" and underlined the importance of keeping "channels of dialogue open" between the two countries.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that disputes in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, "although complex, are not insoluble if there is a will for dialogue."
His remarks came after talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Ankara, held on the sidelines of the 6th High-Level Cooperation Council. The two leaders emphasized dialogue, stability and pragmatic cooperation as the basis for improving bilateral relations, writes ekathimerini.
Reiterating Greece's position, Mitsotakis said that the only dispute concerns maritime delimitation, "which could be referred to international arbitration on the basis of the Law of the Sea."
Mitsotakis, who invited Erdogan to visit Athens for the upcoming High Cooperation Council, said it is “time to remove any threat from our relations,” adding: “If not now, when?”
Ahead of Wednesday's meeting, the Greek leader recently reaffirmed Greece's right under international law to expand its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles.
