The commitment of the Turkish side to support the need for quick and “easy” victories in Greek-Turkish highlights yesterday’s meeting of the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu with Under Secretary of State for Economic Diplomacy Kostas Fragoyanniswho was in Ankara yesterday to discuss with his colleague Burak Aksapar on a positive agenda. After the meeting of the two delegations of Greece and Turkey, Mr. Fragoyannis and Aksapar briefed Mr. Tsavusoglu on the 25 items on the positive agenda.

According to diplomatic sources, Mr. Cavusoglu strongly supported this process. It is noted, after all, that yesterday’s 4th round of discussions on the joint action plan in the context of a positive agenda was launched at the meeting of Mr. Tsavusoglu and Mr. Fragogiannis in Doha just a few weeks ago.

Negotiations on a positive agenda go right after the deal Athens And Ankara for mutual support in efforts to promote Greece and Turkey to positions in international organizations (non-permanent member of the UN Security Council from Greece and Secretary General of the International Maritime Organization from Turkey), but also for an informal moratorium on large-scale exercises in Aegean Sea for the coming pre-election and summer months. Yesterday, two Deputy Ministers discussed the progress made in 25 Topics for a Positive Agendaincluding strengthening cooperation in the areas of tourism, energy, transport and telecommunications, civil protection, maritime affairs, education, social security, health and the environment.

Athens and Ankara agree that additional areas of cooperation between the two sides need to be explored.

The meeting also agreed on a framework of issues that could lead to agreements that could be signed when the next high-level meeting takes place. In addition, as shown in the joint statement issued after the contacts between the two delegations, Greece and Turkey agree on the need to explore additional issues to be included in the positive agenda process. The Turkish delegation also included former Turkish Ambassador to Athens Burak Ozugergin, who replaced the current Ambassador Tsagatay Erchigesh as Political Director for Air Navigation.

What remains to be seen is the scope for further meetings and initiatives before the official announcement of the Greek elections. Although elections will be held almost simultaneously in Greece and Turkey, opportunities for further contacts are limited to a few weeks before the official start of the election campaign.

Mr. Cavusoglu has already extended an invitation to Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias to visit him in Ankara, and Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar also approached his counterpart Nikos Panayotopoulos a few days ago. However, at the present stage, the traditional diplomatic approach has a clear advantage.