FM Gerapetritis and Turkish counterpart Fidan agree on restart of political dialogue

Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan decided at their meeting in Ankara on Tuesday the restart of the political dialogue, the positive agenda and the Confidence Building Measures.

Gerapetritis said that it is important to build on that that unite us and understand better those that divide us.

As the Greek minister said, they agreed that the road map will have the following three levels:

"First the political dialogue level which will start with the responsibility, on the Greek side, of Deputy Minister Alexandra Papadopoulou on 16 October.

Second, the implementation and strengthening of the Confidence Building Measures in the near future and finally the level of the talks on the promotion of the positive cooperation agenda in sectors as investments, agriculture, tourism, trade, shipping, climate crisis which will restart under the responsible deputy minister Kostas Fragogiannis.

The mission of the two ministers is: To resolve the cutting edge issues that will emerge between the two countries and to release the tension aiming at preventing possible dangerous situations. To direct the talks between the two parts at all levels, namely the political dialogue, the positive agenda and the Confidence Building Measures in order to have constant monitoring, single approach and high accountability for the production of beneficial and tangible results. Third, to prepare the meetings between the two country leaders inorder to have a constant strong political mandate and legalisation at the highest level.

The milestones, as Gerapetritis said, will be first of all the meeting between Mitsotakis ane Erdogan on September 18 and the organisation, after 7 years, of the High Cooperation Council in Thessaloniki until the end of the year.

On his side, Fidan underlined that "we have opened a positive period", noting that it was initiated from Mitsotakis and Erdogan's meeting in Vilnius. He also said that they share the same views on the resolution of the differences through the dialogue.