Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Friday that his country prefers a "diplomatic" approach to verbal arguing with Turkey over their old disputes over airspace, maritime borders and gas exploration in the Aegean Sea, while the Turkish president ruled out holding meetings with the Greek side at the present time.
Mitsotakis made the remarks during a visit to the Republic of Cyprus and after a meeting with its President, Nicos Anastasiades, in the capital, Nicosia.
The Greek Prime Minister stressed that he wants to coordinate "efforts in the face of the recent turmoil in the eastern Mediterranean," saying that the best defense for Greece and Cyprus "against any revisionism" is international law, strong regional alliances and "rules of diplomatic good practice."
The two NATO allies are at odds over a number of issues ranging from maritime borders, airspace and potential energy sources in the Mediterranean to ethnically divided Cyprus.
Greece accuses its neighbor of sending fighter planes to fly over the Greek islands, while Turkey considers that Greece's deployment of forces in the Aegean islands violates the peace agreements.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced two weeks ago an end to regular meetings with Greek leaders aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation under an agreement concluded in 2010.
Reuters reported that Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul after Friday prayers, "We said we will not meet them again as long as there is no honest politician in front of me. There can be no clearer and more frank response than this."
On Friday, it seemed that Mitsotakis wanted to defuse the verbal escalation with Turkey, although he did not mention it by name.
"We will soon be able to return to a calmer situation and always keep the channels of communication open which should never be closed even in the most difficult of times," he said.
For his part, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg urged on Thursday Greece and Turkey, both members of the alliance, to resolve their differences "in a spirit of trust".
In the same context, Anadolu Agency reported that Nikos Hardalias, Deputy Defense Minister of Greece, visited the island of Buzbabba, which has a non-military status in the Aegean Sea.
She stated that Hardalias made a visit by helicopter to the island of Buzbaba (Agios Efstratios), which is 80 km from Turkey.
She added that this year, high-ranking Greek officials made nearly 50 visits to the non-military islands.