In preparation for the Prime Minister’s upcoming visit Kyriakou Mitsotakis in Ankara, the Foreign Ministers of Greece, George Gerapetritis, and Turkey, Hakan Fidan, met today Saturday in London.

The talks between Mr. Gerapetitis and Mr. Fidan also focused on bilateral relations and regional and international issues. The meeting of the two Foreign Ministers is part of the cycle of contacts on Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between the two countries.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis will visit Ankara on May 13.

Yesterday, the 6th Round of Talks between Greece and Turkey took place in Istanbul within the framework of the Positive Agenda, which was led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Costas Fragogiannis.

Asked in his interview with SKAI what his expectations are from his meeting in a few days with the Turkish president, Mr. Mitsotakis clarified that “it is not the only point with which I disagree with President Erdogan, the support he supplies to Hamas. On the other hand, the purpose of the visit: we will take a step further in the Greek-Turkish approach, which has yielded some important measurable results. I’ll stop at three.”

The prime minister clarified that: We do not have violations of Greek airspace for more than 12 months. We never had that. It is an important achievement, we must recognize it. We have extremely reduced immigration flows. We are working with Turkey on this issue and this is something that is a result of the improvement of our relations. The issue of visa facilitation for the islands, of very great economic importance for 10 islands of the Eastern Aegean. The important financial agreements that are signed. All this, he noted, forms a climate of peaceful coexistence.

”But, you will say to me, ‘don’t we have very difficult issues? Don’t we have completely different opinions?”. Greece, let’s say, will not proceed, if it has chosen, to exercise its sovereignty to declare marine parks around Greek islands? Obviously we will do it,” he explained.

”And Turkey will have its views. We will disagree on critical issues, but that doesn’t mean we won’t talk, that we won’t recognize the improvement in relations, and that we won’t always try to build on the positives, instead of only focusing on the negatives and our disagreements, which are there. . I don’t expect Turkey to change its policy, nor does Turkey, I imagine, expect me to change policy from one moment to the next,” he stressed.