Franco-Greek military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean on August 13, 2020. -

/ AP / SIPA

Turkey must stop its "threats" against Greece so that negotiations can begin to reduce tensions between Ankara and Athens, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Friday.

"Let us leave aside the threats, so that contacts can be established", estimated the head of the Greek executive during a visit to Athens of a senior official of the Chinese Communist Party.

Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres are expected to discuss Turkey's "outlaw activities" on Friday, the prime minister added.

No discussions yet, assures Athens

Thursday evening, Athens denied discussions with Ankara on a de-escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean, after a tweet from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claiming the contrary.

Following my discussions with Greek & Turkish leaders, the two Allies have agreed to enter into technical talks at #NATO to establish deconfliction mechanisms and reduce the risk of incidents & accidents in the #EastMed.

https://t.co/Kc70MlNPzY

- Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) September 3, 2020

According to the latter, Greece and Turkey, members of the Alliance, had agreed "to start technical talks with NATO", with the objective of preventing any new incident in the Eastern Mediterranean, where a Turkish seismic boat accompanied warships have been in Greek waters since August 10.

The information was quickly denied by Greek diplomacy, which warned Thursday that "de-escalation (would) only take place with the immediate withdrawal of all Turkish ships from the Greek continental shelf."

Escalation of tensions since August 10

Since August 10, Ankara has deployed its seismic boat Oruç Reis and its escort of Turkish warships to carry out explorations off the Greek island of Kastellorizo, 2 km from the Turkish coast, in an area rich in hydrocarbons.

At the end of August, tensions rose a notch between Turkey and Greece, which carried out rival military maneuvers, the first with the United States then with Russia, the second with France, Cyprus and Italy.

For its part, the European Union threatens Turkey with new sanctions if there is no progress in the dialogue with Athens on the crisis in the Mediterranean.

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