Baku TurkicWorld
Ankara and Athens agreed to develop a cooperative agenda on Thursday as ties between the two Mediterranean countries have improved in the past few months, TurkicWorld reports citing Daily Sabah.
Defense Minister Yaşar Güler met with his Greek counterpart Alkiviadis Stefanis during the NATO Defense Ministers Meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
"In a meeting characterized by a constructive and cordial atmosphere, Ministers Guler and Stefanis agreed on developing a cooperative agenda based on good neighborly relations and friendship between Türkiye and Greece," said the Turkish Defense Ministry on its Twitter account.
The North Atlantic Council (NAC) was set to convene for a crucial two-day meeting at NATO headquarters chaired by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. The gathering has assembled defense ministers from allied countries.
Earlier in the day, Güler met with his Lithuanian, French and British counterparts as well as Stoltenberg.
After years of escalation in tensions between the two neighbors, the diplomatic climate changed swiftly and significantly after twin earthquakes shook southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, affecting 13.5 million people and killing over 50,000.
Despite territorial and energy disputes exacerbating regional tensions, the two neighbors, situated on seismic fault lines, also have a tradition of helping each other in times of natural disasters and Greece was among the first countries to convey its condolences and offer aid after the disaster.
This show of solidarity by the Greek state and people in times of need and its wholehearted reception on the Turkish side "opened a window of opportunity" in bilateral relations.
Ankara, in turn, sought to return this goodwill when a tragic train accident claimed dozens of lives near the northern Greek town of Tempi on Feb. 28, and Türkiye became the first country to offer condolences and aid.
Diplomatic contacts, too, have flourished, with the tragedy prompting the first contact between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in months and a series of meetings between senior officials.
Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu came together with his Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias in Brussels on March 20 for a meeting that produced a significant announcement of support in international agencies.
Greece and Türkiye also restarted their "positive agenda" initiative, which Çavuşoğlu and Dendias initially agreed upon in April 2021.
In the fourth round of the talks under a positive agenda framework, Turkish and Greek delegations led on both sides by deputy foreign ministers came together in the Turkish capital Ankara on March 22.
In a joint statement, the parties said they discussed headway in the agenda's 25 topics. These include cooperation and progress in entrepreneurship, tourism, energy, transport and telecommunications, maritime affairs, information and communications technology, education, social security, health and the environment.
Türkiye and Greece have often locked horns over several issues, including competing claims to jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, overlapping claims over their continental shelves, maritime boundaries, airspace, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus, the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea and migrants.
