2023-07-11 22:42:45
The president of the USA Joe Biden and the Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan laid on the carpet economic and defense issues during their meeting in Vilnius, announced White Housea day after the Anchor lifted her objections to her inclusion Sweden in the NATO.
“They also discussed regional issues of common concern, including their continued support for the Ukraine and its importance maintaining stability in the Aegean“, the White House said.
“The Biden administration will proceed with the transfer of F-16 fighter jets in Turkey in consultation with the Congress“, the national security adviser said earlier Jake Sullivan.
According to a statement from the White House, President Biden congratulated President Erdogan on the agreement he reached with Swedish Prime Minister and the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.
The two leaders discussed efforts to strengthen it bilateral cooperationwelcoming the latest round of discussions regarding the strategic mechanism.
It is recalled that at noon on Wednesday the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will have personal meeting with Turkish President Erdogan.
At the start of the meeting with Joe Biden, Mr. Erdogan said: “Mr. President, my esteemed friend, I want to thank you for your phone call, but also for the message you sent me about my re-election. I believe that in its context strategic mechanism the time has come for the two presidents’ consultations. And this meeting of ours, in its context NATO, I consider it as the first step”. He pointed out that “our previous meetings were something like a warm-up, but now we are starting a new process. Of course, for me this process is five years, but you have an election period and I wish you good success”.
Joe Biden shot back: “Thank you, we look forward to working with you over the next five years.”
“Restart” in Greek-Turkish relations and the Supreme Cooperation Council
The meeting of the Greek Prime Minister with the Turkish President at their Summit NATO in Vilnius, the first in 16 months, is the moment of truth for the opening of a new chapter in Greek-Turkish relations, a development that has the practical encouragement of important allies such as the USA and Germany.
At the meeting, Mr. Mitsotakis has every reason to highlight a positive agenda and not focus on points of friction. The “red lines” are well known. However, promoting other actions in parallel may prove useful.
A rather easy, productive and highly symbolic first step could be the reopening of the Supreme Cooperation Council, which had been positively evaluated during the government terms of Papandreou, Samaras and Tsipras.
If the “green” light is given by the two leaders, there is great scope for deepening cooperation, as the effective contacts of the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs have shown Costas Fragogiannis.
The effort to “restart” will be comprehensive as there will also be meetings between the new foreign and defense ministers of the two countries.
Greece is looking forward to a real and lasting improvement in relations with its neighbor, but the ball is in Turkey’s court.
If the Turkish president decides that he has more to gain in terms of his relations with the US and the EU, as well as from a new environment of cooperation rather than confrontation with all countries in the region, instead of insisting on the revisionist and expansionist doctrine of “Blue Homeland’, things could improve quickly.
After the positive atmosphere created by Greece’s immediate and honest response to the earthquake in Turkey and the newly confirmed political power of Mitsotakis and Erdogan, the present setting offers an opportunity.
Agreement on the need for de-escalation and rapid implementation of confidence-building measures could also be relatively easy first steps.
Obviously, the sovereignty and sovereign rights of Greece cannot be the subject of discussion or negotiation.
But the delimitation of the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zones are matters of major importance that the two neighbors can and must resolve either through negotiations or, most likely, by recourse to the international court.
If this process goes ahead, both the bilateral and the regional puzzle will be very different, offering further opportunities to achieve progress that seems impossible today.
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