Talks between Greek premier Kyriacos Mitsotakis and Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan were held in a good climate on Wednesday during the Nato summit in Vilnius, government sources said on Wednesday amid a wave of anticipation after Turkey backed Sweden’s Nato membership bid.
Wednesday marks the first time Erdogan and Mitsotakis met after both of their re-elections, during a meeting that lasted for around an hour.
Closer to home, Akel lambasted raised expectations that Turkey’s talks over Sweden’s Nato membership could be critical for developments on the Cyprus problem.
The party charged that those expectations were wholly unjustified and fell completely flat.
“Monday’s Nato summit ended with Turkey agreeing to Swedens membership of Nato after securing significant trade-offs,” Akel said.
“Turkey took everything it managed to take without making any commitments whatsoever where Cyprus is concerned,” the left-wing party said in a statement.
“While Monday’s summit was described by President Nikos Christodoulides as a milestone in the effort to resume talks, Cyprus effectively gained nothing.”
Christodoulides was set to meet with Mitsotakis and hold talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Talks at the Nato summit in Vilnius on Monday marked a historic day, where Erdogan agreed to back Sweden’s Nato membership after months of wrangling.
Erdogan’s hard negotiations allowed him to make progress with Sweden over his demands for a tougher crackdown on Turkish Kurds in Sweden, and an announcement from the US that they will move ahead with the transfer of F-16 jets, effectively lifting the US Congress veto on the sale of F-16’s to Ankara.
There were also talks of progress connected to Turkey’s demands for visa-free travel inside the EU.
In light of the developments, Akel said there needs to be “serious reflections over our next steps.” The party insisted the only path forward was to exert pressure on Turkey to resume talks by being committed to the efforts to resume talks where they collapsed in Crans Montana, on the UN framework.
“It is also imperative that a positive agenda be formulated to motivate Turkey to demonstrate a constructive spirit and to cooperate in order to achieve a just, viable and workable solution for the liberation and reunification of our homeland.”
Present at the beginning of the Erdogan-Mitsotakis meeting was also the chief of Turkey’s intelligence services, Ibrahim Kalin.
He congratulated the Greek prime minister on his re-election, who in turn congratulated Kalin over the new duties he is assuming.
The Greek and Turkish defence ministers also met during the summit, where the talks were held in good climate, Greek government sources reported.
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