Issues between Greece and Turkey being put on ice for now

With the war in Ukraine upsetting regional balances and realigning NATO’s orientation, the pending issues dividing Greece and Turkey are temporarily being put on ice in the name of the transatlantic Alliance’s cohesion.

This turn of events is not least due to the transformation of the Black Sea into a front line for NATO and the upgrade in the importance of the Aegean Sea.

According to Kathimerini, the effort to bury the hatchet for now was also suggested by the contacts at the highest level last Sunday between Prime Minister Kyriakos Misotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul, and at the level of defense ministers between Nikos Panagiotoulos and Hulusi Akar in Brussels on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, in his planned meetings on Friday in New York with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield, apart from Ukraine, Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias was expected to also raise the issues of the wider Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East-North Africa region, which also concern Athens.

Cyprus Issue

The Cyprus issue was also expected to be part of the discussions, even though it has, at the moment, apparently reached a dead end, due to the general situation.

Νίκος Dendias has also reportedly decided, despite the constant reversals to his program due to the war in Ukraine, to also pursue other diplomatic initiatives.

One of them is his visit to India in the coming days, in an effort to cultivate a relationship with New Delhi, which Athens views to be of strategic importance.

Moreover, given that Athens lays great stress on the importance of the international law of the sea, Dendias also plans to visit Archipelagic Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines.