Mitsotakis, Erdogan hail positive climate at Nato summit

Greece and Turkey agreed on Wednesday to resume talks and confidence-building measures as they hailed a new “positive climate” in ties after more than a year of tensions between the historic foes.

The two Nato allies have been at odds for decades over a range of issues including where their continental shelves start and end, energy resources, overflights of the Aegean Sea and Cyprus.

Last year, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan halted bilateral talks in a dispute over airspace violations and after accusing Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of pressuring the United States to block the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey.

Relations improved when Greece became one of the first countries to send rescue workers to help pull survivors from the rubble after a devastating earthquake hit Turkey in February.

Erdogan and Mitsotakis, both recently re-elected, met on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Vilnius on Wednesday in their first meeting since March last year.

“It is to the benefit of both countries that the positive climate formed in bilateral relations over recent months has continuity and consistency,” the two leaders’ offices said in identical but separate statements.

“The two sides agreed to build on the positive momentum and activate multiple channels of communication between the two countries in the coming period,” they said, adding that the two leaders look forward to “more frequent contact at all levels”.

They also agreed that the next meeting of a High-Level Cooperation Council, a mechanism the two countries set up in 2010 for their rapprochement, will be held in the northern Greek city of Thessalonki in the autumn.

“We are cautiously optimistic we can turn a new page,” Mitsotakis told reporters after the summit.

Closer to home, Akel lambasted raised expectations that Turkey’s talks over Sweden’s Nato membership could be critical for developments on the Cyprus problem.

The party charged that those expectations were wholly unjustified and fell completely flat.

“Monday’s Nato summit ended with Turkey agreeing to Sweden’s membership of Nato after securing significant trade-offs,” Akel said.

“Turkey took everything it managed to take without making any commitments whatsoever where Cyprus is concerned,” the left-wing party said in a statement.

“While Monday’s summit was described by President Nikos Christodoulides as a milestone in the effort to resume talks, Cyprus effectively gained nothing.”

Christodoulides was set to meet with Mitsotakis and hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Talks at the Nato summit in Vilnius on Monday marked a historic day, where Erdogan agreed to back Sweden’s Nato membership after months of wrangling.

Erdogan’s hard negotiations allowed him to make progress with Sweden over his demands for a tougher crackdown on Turkish Kurds in Sweden, and an announcement from the US that they will move ahead with the transfer of F-16 jets, effectively lifting the US Congress veto on the sale of F-16’s to Ankara.

There were also talks of progress connected to Turkey’s demands for visa-free travel inside the EU.

In light of the developments, Akel said there needs to be “serious reflections over our next steps.” The party insisted the only path forward was to exert pressure on Turkey to resume talks by being committed to the efforts to resume talks where they collapsed in Crans Montana, on the UN framework.

“It is also imperative that a positive agenda be formulated to motivate Turkey to demonstrate a constructive spirit and to cooperate in order to achieve a just, viable and workable solution for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.”

Present at the beginning of the Erdogan-Mitsotakis meeting was also the chief of Turkey’s intelligence services, Ibrahim Kalin.

He congratulated the Greek prime minister on his re-election, who in turn congratulated Kalin over the new duties he is assuming.

The Greek and Turkish defence ministers also met during the summit, where the talks were held in good climate, Greek government sources reported.