Briefing note: Greece and Turkey ‘agree to disagree’ amid regional chaos

Foreign ministers Hakan Fidan (L) and Yiorgos Gerapetritis

On November 8, the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers, Yiorgos Gerapetritis and Hakan Fidan, met in Athens. Their carefully prepared statements revealed no changes in long-standing major differences on how to delimit maritime boundaries. The importance of the meeting lay elsewhere – in their willingness to keep phone lines between the ministers and chiefs of staff open to defuse any future military crisis, and to preserve the current atmosphere of détente and push forward on the so-called Positive Agenda of economic, cultural and environmental co-operation, while the elephant in the room continues to graze undisturbed.