Mitsotakis receives congratulations from Erdogan; meeting at upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius cited

The first telephone contact between Kyriakos Mitsotakis and recently re-elected Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan came on Monday, a day after the former’s New Democracy (ND) won another landslide election.

According to reports, Erdogan extended his congratulations for the election victory by ND and Mitsotakis’ second term as Greek prime minister.

Mitsotakis had done the same last month, when Erdogan was re-elected as the Turkish head of state.

It emerged that both leaders agreed to meet on the sidelines of the closely watched NATO summit in Vilnius next month, where the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Alliance’s expansion will dominate the agenda.

Mitsotakis had briefly referred to Greek-Turkish relations during the recent campaign in the country, reiterating what he defined as Athens’ standing “red lines”.

“If Turkey wants to come closer to Europe and make an opening towards the West, this opening passes through the resumption of a Greek-Turkish dialogue, but on the one and only difference, namely, delimitation of the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean”, he said during a television interview last week.