Turkey, Greece to meet over Aegean disputes after one year

ANKARA

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias attends an EU foreign affairs council at the European Council, in Brussels, on December 14, 2015. AFP photo

Diplomats from Turkey and Greece are set to resume discussions aimed at resolving the decades-long dispute over the official border between the two countries in the Aegean Sea, more than one year after the most recent talks. 

A statement from the Turkish Foreign Ministry announced the 59th round of “exploratory contacts” between the two countries would be hosted in Istanbul on Dec. 23. The meeting comes after high-level dialogue between the two countries’ prime ministers, who agreed to resume talks.

The most recent exploratory contacts took place on Sept. 13, 2014, in Thessaloniki.

Talks began in the early 2000s to end the dispute between Athens and Ankara over territorial water, continental shelf and airspace boundaries over the Aegean Sea.

Turkey and Greece have improved their political and economic relations in recent years, but have not to found a formula to end the Aegean problem. The two countries even came to the brink of war in the mid-1990s over a disputed islet.