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Greece and Turkey explore holding talks on maritime zones 


FILE - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at United Nations Headquarters, in New York, Sept. 24, 2024. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)
FILE - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at United Nations Headquarters, in New York, Sept. 24, 2024. (Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Turkish Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)

Greece and Turkey will explore whether they can start talks aimed at demarcating their maritime zones, Greece's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Neighbors Greece and Turkey, both NATO allies but historic foes, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus.

An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights over possible gas reserves and power infrastructure schemes.

Tensions have eased in recent years and both countries agreed last year to reboot their relations, pledging to keep open channels of communication and work on the issues that have kept them apart.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and discussed bilateral ties, according to statements from the Turkish presidency and the Greek foreign ministry.

"The two leaders tasked the foreign ministers to explore whether conditions are favorable to initiate discussions on the demarcation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone," Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said.

Foreign ministers from the two countries will start preparations for a high-level meeting to take place in Ankara in January, the Greek prime minister's office said.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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