NATO Secretary-General visits Turkey
Xinhua News Agency, Ankara, October 5 (Reporter Zheng Siyuan and Shi Yang) NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg visited Turkey on the 5th and discussed a series of security issues with Turkish dignitaries.
According to Turkey's Anadolu News Agency, Stoltenberg and Turkish President Erdogan held a closed-door meeting for about an hour in Ankara to discuss a series of security issues.
Stoltenberg said on social media after the meeting that the two sides discussed the establishment of a mechanism to avoid military conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean within the NATO framework.
He hopes that the conflict avoidance mechanism recently reached by Turkey and Greece under the auspices of NATO will create space for diplomatic efforts.
Stoltenberg also met with Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu that day.
Stoltenberg said at a joint press conference after the meeting that the established mechanism for avoiding military conflicts in the Eastern Mediterranean will reduce the possibility of friction in the region. Specific measures include the establishment of security hotlines in Turkey and Greece, and representatives of the two countries in NATO. Headquarters meeting and so on.
It is hoped that this mechanism can be further deepened, and the differences between Turkey and Greece can be resolved through dialogue.
Regarding the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh (Naka) region, Stoltenberg expressed the hope that all parties can immediately cease fire and find a peaceful solution to the problem, and hope that Turkey will use its influence to cool the situation.
Cavusoglu thanked NATO for its efforts to coordinate the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
He said that Turkey and Greece have already started meeting, and Turkey is happy about it.
In November last year, Turkey and the Libyan Government of National Unity signed a memorandum of understanding on "maritime jurisdiction" in the Mediterranean, seeking to obtain a larger exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean, but it was strongly opposed by Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.
Earlier this year, Greece, Cyprus and Israel signed an agreement to lay a natural gas pipeline in the Eastern Mediterranean.
In August, Greece and Egypt signed a maritime boundary agreement, and the two sides announced that they would establish a maritime exclusive economic zone.
Turkey stated that the area covered by the agreement is within the Turkish continental shelf.
Since then, Turkey has restarted natural gas exploration activities in the disputed waters of the eastern Mediterranean, which aroused opposition from Greece and Cyprus.
Allies of the two sides conducted joint military exercises, and the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean was tense.