Prime Ministers, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, will have informal talks with Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in London. The meeting reportedly takes place following a Turkish request. It takes place amid increased tension between the two countries, with Turkey to have unilaterally declared Exclusive Economic Zone with the occupied north territory of Cyprus.
The two leaders will participate in the meeting accompanied by the ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense. The meeting is scheduled to take place at 02:30 p.m. London time (4:30 Greek time.)
Sources from the Prime Minister’s office told media that Mitsotakis intents to speak with Erdogan about “all questions arising from Turkey’s provocations” with the latest being the “maritime boundaries” agreement signed last week between Turkey and Libya.
Government spokesman, Stelios Petsas, said on Tuesday that “Turkey attempts to abolish the maritime zones of the islands Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos and Kastellorizo with tricks such as invalid bilateral MoU that do not produce valid results internationally.”
He added that “Turkey cannot undermine the sovereign rights of our islands, which are firmly established in international law, and in particular in the Law of the Sea.”
However, Erdogan does not seem willing to step back even an inch. Before leaving for London on Tuesday morning he lashed out at critics of the Turkey-Libya Memorandum of Understanding.
“This step is a sovereign right of Libya and Turkey,” Erdogan said according to news agency AFP.
“We will not debate this sovereign right with you. We will tell them this openly,” he added.
Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu posted an infographic late on Monday.
The expanded Exclusive Economic Zone has eliminated the Greek island of Kastellorizo and deprived Rhodes, Karpathos and Crete of their maritime zones in the East.
PM Mitsotakis plans to internationalize “Turkey’s inflammatory rhetoric” at the NATO Summit. The question is whether he will find allies.
