Foreign relations of Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made statements to the press following his meeting with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Vilnius on Wednesday and claimed that Turkey's goal is to "make more friends than enemies."

The moment of truth for a potential opening of a new chapter in Greek-Turkish relations - with the encouragement of influential allies like the US and Germany - has arrived.

On Wednesday, the Greek prime minister will meet the Turkish president, for the first time in 16 months, at the NATO summit in Vilnius.

Greek officials hope that Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis' meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, their first in 16 months, will solidify the recent relatively calm relationship between the two countries and keep the communication channels open.

Prompted by the recent period of calm in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, both freshly re-elected, are aiming to announce the resumption of bilateral contacts after meeting at the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12.

Turkey is seeking to pack as much as it can into the agenda of the crucial NATO Summit in Vilnius in July. It is not just the trade-offs Ankara hopes to get for agreeing to Sweden's induction into the Alliance or its claims concerning the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plan to meet next month in Ankara in an attempt to warm up their bilateral relations, according to reports. 

Alamy Photo

Talks for the Swedish bid to join NATO will continue in the coming period, a statement from the Turkish Communications Directorate has said, following a key meeting for the Nordic state's accession to the alliance.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Thursday said he would visit Ankara "in the near future" to push Sweden's membership bid, after the re-election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

"I'm confident of course that Sweden will be a member, and then we're working for that to happen as early as possible," Stoltenberg said at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Oslo.

President Katerina Sakellaropoulou sent a message to re-elected Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday, congratulating him on his victory.

In her message, the president notes that she looks forward to the further development of bilateral relations on the basis of international law with the goal of securing regional peace and stability.

The message coming out of Athens after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said via Kathimerini on Thursday that he wants good relations with Greece was that Athens' intentions after the elections to hold discussions with Ankara and any president of Turkey remain sincere, without, however, cultivating naive expectations that Turkey's foreign policy will change in the long run.