It started meeting of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Gerapetritis, with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidanat the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Fidan arrived at the Foreign Ministry at 10:30 as scheduled.

Gerapetritis Fidan

Gerapetritis Fidan

After the private meeting of the two ministers, extended talks of the delegations will follow and at 12:30 in the afternoon joint statements will be made to the press.

Afterwards, a working lunch will be served.

Mr. Fidan is very cheerful and the goal is to maintain calm waters in the Aegean, said Mr Manolis Kostidiswho had a brief conversation with Hakan Fidan at the hotel where he is staying, shortly before the meeting with the Greek foreign minister.

In his statements to SKAIthe government representative, Pavlos Marinakisstated that “the meeting of Mr. Gerapetritis and Fidan is not a meeting of high expectations”. He characterized it as “another episode among the many that Greece wants to have in a period of prolonged dialogue with Turkey”.

He said that in addition to the other issues on the positive agenda between the two countries, today it is expected to discuss the conditions for whether we can discuss the one and only difference we have with Turkey, the definition of the EEZ and the continental shelf.

The two foreign ministers are expected to investigate jointly and at the behest of their leaders, Kyriakou Mitsotakis and Recep Tayyip Erdoganthe potential framework for a possible resolution of the one and only dispute between the two countries, as Greece emphatically emphasizes, the delimitation of the continental shelf and EEZ, based on International Law.

During today’s meeting, the two heads of Greece-Turkey diplomacy are not expected to get into the essence of bilateral issues, but are expected to discuss the conditions, framework and technical issues under which the Greek-Turkish dialogue could proceed on the substantial difference, from which Athens has declared that “it is not going to take the slightest step back”.