Greece, Turkey consider holding talks on maritime zones By Reuters

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece and Turkey will explore whether they can start talks aimed at delimiting their maritime zones, Greece’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Neighbors Greece and Turkey, both NATO allies but historic enemies, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues, from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically divided Cyprus.

An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights to possible gas reserves and energy infrastructure schemes.

Tensions have eased in recent years, and both countries agreed last year to restart relations, pledging to keep channels of communication open and work on the issues that have kept them apart.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and discussed bilateral relations, according to statements by the Turkish presidency and the Greek foreign ministry.

“The two leaders tasked the foreign ministers to explore whether there are favorable conditions to initiate discussions on the demarcation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zone,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said.

The foreign ministers of the two countries will begin preparations for a high-level meeting to be held in Ankara in January, the Greek prime minister’s office announced.