ANKARA, Feb 11 (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will host Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday for talks likely to focus on migration and longstanding maritime disputes, as the NATO allies and historic rivals try to build on warming ties.
Fifteen migrants died in a shipwreck off the Greek island of Chios last week after their boat collided with a Greek coastguard vessel and sank in the Aegean Sea off the Turkish coast.
Mitsotakis will be accompanied by ministers responsible for foreign affairs, finance, development and migration, Greek officials said.
Developments in the Middle East, Iran and Ukraine, migration, trade and organised crime are also likely to be on the agenda.
Greek Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lana Zochiou said on Tuesday the aim was “to assess the progress of bilateral cooperation” and “to keep communication channels open to defuse any potential crises”.
Turkey is a transit country for migrants seeking to reach the European Union via Greece. Ankara says the EU has not fully delivered on commitments under a 2016 migration deal and Athens wants Turkey to do more to curb irregular crossings.
Despite a thaw in rhetoric since a 2023 declaration on friendly relations, the neighbours are at odds over maritime boundaries in the Aegean, an area widely believed to hold energy resources and with implications for airspace and military activity.
Ankara said last month it had issued a maritime notice urging Greece to coordinate research activities in areas of the Aegean that Turkey considers part of its continental shelf.
Greece’s foreign minister had said Athens planned to extend its territorial waters further, including potentially in the Aegean.
In 1995, Turkey’s parliament declared a casus belli — a cause for war — should Greece unilaterally extend its territorial waters beyond six nautical miles in the Aegean, a stance Athens says violates international maritime law. Greece says it wants only to discuss demarcation of maritime zones.
(Reporting by Ece Toksabay in Ankara and Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)
