Greek, Turkish FMs meet in NYC a day before Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting

The Greek and Turkish foreign ministers met at the UN headquarters in New York City on Tuesday, two weeks after an “introductory tête-à-tête” in Ankara, and a day before a closely watched meeting – in the same metropolis – between the two countries’ leaders.

During the previous contacts in Ankara, ministers George Gerapetritis and Hakan Fidan, both newly appointed to the posts, essentially moved towards rapprochement after nearly three years of very strained relations. In practical terms, this means a resumption of political dialogue between Athens and Ankara, promotion of a so-called “positive agenda” and working to implement long-discussed confidence-building measures (CBMs).

Greek-Turkish relations fell to a quarter-century nadir only months after Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ election as Greek premier in July 2019.

Among others, official Ankara mustered tens of thousands of third country nationals to the land border between the two countries in late February and early March 2020 in a bid to breach the frontier en masse – a repeat of the 2015 migrant crisis, but with a confrontational and aggressive illegal entry and via an overland route.

Top Turkish officials, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, then repeatedly and loudly threatened Greek sovereignty and rights, in an unprecedented – even by nationalist Turkish standards – crescendo of irredentism, belligerence and jingoism.

Four years later and with newly derived voter mandates from the ballot box, Mitsotakis and Erdogan will meet again at the Turkish consulate in NYC on Wednesday.

In the joint statements today, Gerapetritis had expressed satisfaction with the current climate of cooperation between the two sides, noting that it was built up in only a few months since the inauguration of the two governments.

He added that this climate is based on “mutual understanding and respect, which keeps open a direct channel of communication, and which allows the de-escalation of crises and establishment of a solid base for discussions at all levels between us.”

Gerapetritis, in fact, cited a bilateral “road map” in repeating the resumption of political dialogue, implementation and strengthening of CBMs and the promotion of a positive agenda, which will focus on sectors such as tourism, investments, agriculture, trade, shipping and the climate crisis, among others.