Greek FM meets Turkish counterpart in Bratislava as tensions continue to rise

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on the sidelines of a separate meeting in the Slovakian capital of Bratislava.

The pair met on the sidelines of the GLOBSEC forum in Bratislava. GLOBSEC is one of the most influential think tank from the Central European region and every year since 2005 it has hosted the annual GLOBSEC Bratislava Global Security Forum.

The high-level meeting meeting between Dendias and Çavuşoğlu took place before the resumption of exploratory contacts between Greece and Turkey on demarcating their maritime zones.

Elena Becatoros, an Associated Press bureau chief, described the meeting as “almost jovial.”

“Video of meeting shows cordial, almost jovial atmosphere between the two,” she said in a tweet.

Although Dendias was smiling during his meeting with his Turkish counterpart, it comes as Turkey made a major provocation by announcing it will conduct a live fire drill in the middle of the Aegean on the day Greece celebrates one of its most important public holiday’s.

Turkey issued two navigational telexes (NAVTEX) from its naval station in Smyrna (Σμύρνα, Turkish: İzmir) and Attaleia (Ἀττάλεια, Antalya) to sail in the middle of the Aegean and southeast Aegean and conduct live fire exercises.

The reserve area is between the islands of Chios, Evia, Praron and Skyros and will go from from October 26-28, as well as an area between Rhodes and Kastellorizo, in international on Friday and Saturday.