Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis landed in Ankara shortly before 3:00 PM as part of his official visit to Turkey.
The meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the “White Palace” in Ankara is currently underway.
According to government sources, the two Foreign Ministers, Georgios Gerapetritis and Hakan Fidan, as well as both diplomatic advisers, Anna Maria Boura and Akif Tsagatai Kilic, are present at the meeting.
The meeting is expected to last approximately 1.5 hours before the leaders move on to extended discussions with the full delegations. Subsequently, statements and dinner will follow, with Mr. Mitsotakis departing Turkey by around 21:00.
Three meetings had preceded in Vilnius, New York, and Athens, with this visit being a reciprocation of Erdogan’s first visit after years of tension in Greece.
A key element to emerge from the Ankara meeting will be the roadmap for future meetings. Mitsotakis and Erdogan are expected to meet in New York in September, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, and also at the NATO Summit in Washington in July. However, there are also pending meetings at a lower level, which need to be put on a new cycle, with the replacement of Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar, who will be moving to the UN in the coming months, leaving temporarily without a dialogue partner for political dialogue and their positive agenda Alexandra Papadopoulou and Kostas Fragogiannis.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis – Nikos Christodoulides: Talks before the meeting with Erdogan in Ankara
Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s visit schedule:
– 15:30 – Reception of the Prime Minister by the Turkish President at the Presidential Palace
– 15:45-16:30: Limited composition meeting of the Prime Minister with the Turkish President (1+2)
– 16:30-17:15: Extended discussions (1+10)
– 17:15-17:45: Statements to the Press
– 18:00-19:15: Official Dinner
– 19:45: Departure of the Prime Minister from Ankara
During today’s meeting between the two leaders, it is expected that two new agreements will be signed: the first concerns a cooperation agreement regarding Disaster Management and Emergency Needs, which establishes a more structured basis for assistance between the two countries in urgent situations. The second relates to cooperation in the field of Health and Medical Sciences. The same sources also emphasize that the establishment of the Hellenic-Turkish Business Council will be announced, which is recalled to have been agreed upon during President Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Athens last December.
Subsequently, expanded contacts will follow with the participation, among others, of the Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Papadopoulou and Kostas Fragogiannis, responsible for political dialogue and the “positive” agenda, as well as Burak Akşapar, the Chief of Protocol, Themistocles Demiris, and his Turkish counterpart, Ibrahim Kalin, the National Security Advisor, Athanasios Dokos, the Advisor for International Strategic Planning, Aristotelis Pelonis, and the Director of Communications of the Prime Minister, Kyra Kapi.
