Turkish top diplomat due in Athens for key talks

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan will be in Athens on Nov. 8 to hold talks with Greek Foreign Minister Yorgo Gerapetritis amid growing ties between the two neighboring countries.

Talks between the two top diplomats will focus on bilateral relations and review the preparations of the Türkiye-Greece high-level cooperation council to be held in early 2025, according to diplomatic sources.

The ministers will also set the dates of the meetings of the Political Dialogue and Positive Agenda Joint Action Plan.

Ties between the two countries have been observing an impetus in the past two years thanks to intensified dialogue and a common will to resolve the problems stemming from the Aegean Sea through diplomacy.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis exchanged visits in 2023 and 2024, which paved the way for the announcement of the Athens Declaration setting principles for improving the ties. The two countries have launched cooperation in various fields, including transportation, tourism, trade, maritime and energy.

The two leaders announced their mutual will to work to increase the trade volume from the current $6 billion to $10 billion.

On the Aegean issues, Türkiye underlines that it seeks to resolve the problems as a whole and is ready to launch talks with Greece to this end. Greece, however, believes the only problem is the controversy over the territorial waters. It does not want to discuss Türkiye’s accusations of Greece’s arming Aegean islands, airspace controversy and other sovereign issues.

Türkiye also hopes that growing ties will also serve to resolve the standing problems of the Turkish minorities in Western Thrace and other parts of Greece.