Roadmap amid calm waters in the Aegean

Reaffirming the positive climate in relations between the two countries, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to a roadmap of contacts during their much anticipated meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

“We had a productive discussion with President Erdogan in the presence of our foreign ministers and diplomatic advisers. We agreed to continue working to deepen the positive climate in Greek-Turkish relations that has been established in recent months, and we clearly identified the level of contacts and meetings for the coming period, in terms of political dialogue, confidence building measures and promotion of the positive agenda,” Mitsotakis said after the meeting, which lasted over an hour.

For his part, Erdogan expressed hope on X (formerly known as Twitter) that the meeting with Mitsotakis will “be beneficial for our country and our region.” The agreed roadmap foresees meetings in mid-October on the political dialogue and the positive agenda between the deputy ministers of foreign affairs (Alexandra Papadopoulou and Burak Akcapar).

This will be followed by meetings in November on confidence building measures and the convening of the Supreme Cooperation Council of Greece-Turkey on December 7 in Thessaloniki. The two men also discussed issues of common interest such as migration and the climate crisis.

“I believe that Turkey’s cooperation is necessary in order to reduce migration flows to a minimum, but of course we also discussed the major challenges of the climate crisis as Greece and Turkey this summer were faced with significant natural disasters,” said Mitsotakis after the meeting in the Turkish House, the Turkish diplomatic missions located near the UN Headquarters in New York. The last time the two leaders had met in person was in July in Vilnius, Lithuania on the sidelines of the NATO Summit.

In an interview earlier to the American network CNN, Mitsotakis said, “Greece and Turkey have perennial difficulties, but this does not mean that the two countries cannot cooperate in other areas.”

“We have big differences but we will try to solve them through international law and the law of the sea… We can agree to disagree on territorial matters. We can cooperate in other areas. That’s what I would like to achieve in my meeting with Erdogan,” he said.