The Athens Declaration on Friendly Relations and Good-Neighborliness signed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Greece in December has the potential to be a milestone in bilateral ties, Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Konstantinos Frangogiannis said Friday.
“This is a significant development that we could not have dreamt about in the previous years and bears the potential to be a milestone in our bilateral relations,” Frangogiannis told Anadolu Agency (AA) during a business forum organized by the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) in cooperation with Enterprise Greece in Istanbul.
“Currently, our bilateral relations continue through a three-level road map based on political dialogue, positive agenda and confidence-building measures,” he added.
According to the declaration, the two countries stressed they are committed to fostering friendly relations, mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and understanding and seeking resolution to any dispute between them in line with international law.
Furthermore, the two sides underscored that they would work to cultivate “a spirit of solidarity in the face of current and future challenges without any prejudice to each other’s legal positions,” according to the declaration.
Türkiye and Greece also signed one agreement, seven memorandum of understanding (MoUs) and seven joint declarations covering different fields.
Frangogiannis underlined that he played an active role in the positive agenda principle. He emphasized that in the past three years, significant progress has been made in connectivity, facilitation of commercial transactions, increased tourist flows, civil protection and development of cooperation.
“We continue to work on the 29 items of the positive agenda. Let me also state that the latest addition to the agenda aims to increase communication and cooperation between the youth of our two countries in important areas such as innovation and technology.”
In terms of bilateral investment ties, Frangogiannis said that Greece’s direct investments in Türkiye exceed those of Ankara in Athens. “According to the data of the Central Bank of Greece, the Greek investment stock in Türkiye was 316 million euros ($344.14 million) in 2020, while it has reached 337 million euros recently."
He elaborated that Greek investments in Türkiye were mainly in the sectors of construction and food, while Turkish investments in Greece were largely related to tourism infrastructure, packaging and chemicals.
"Türkiye is a large and interesting market offering a wide scope of business activities, especially in construction projects, medical equipment and pharmaceutical product supply, waste management, water treatment, renewable energy and of course, the food and beverage sector, so the potential for cooperation is very broad."
The Greek deputy minister also underlined that the two neighboring countries must live in peace and that honest dialogue must be used to build bridges to overcome differences.
Erdoğan was in Athens for the first time since 2017 after a long period of tension marked by disputes over migration, energy exploration in the Aegean and territorial sovereignty. The visit marked the opening of a new chapter between the two neighbors.
Greek and Turkish ministers also held a meeting of the High Cooperation Council, a bilateral body that last convened in 2016.
