GENOA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2020) Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday called for strong support for Greece and Cyprus as they are squaring off against Turkey in the eastern Mediterranean, saying Rome has always done so and will keep doing so further on.
"As for the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, we have addressed it being aware that regional tensions affect everyone and that it is our duty to do everything possible to resolve them ... But the first step and the main prerequisite is to express strong support, not only ideological but concrete, to our friends Greece and Cyprus facing the unilateral actions of Turkey. As Italy and a member of the European Union, we have always been doing it and we will continue to do so also in future," the prime minister said after the MED7 summit in Corsica.
The summit traditionally gathered seven Mediterranean EU members � Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal, and Spain � to work together toward common interests within the European Union framework.
The previous gathering took place amid simmering hostilities between Athens, Nicosia, and Ankara.
The Turkish-Greek tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean escalated after Ankara began exploration drilling in the Greek-claimed waters in early August. Athens considers this territory to be its exclusive economic zone and has mobilized its armed forces to high alert, vowing to protect its sovereign rights by all means.
Meanwhile, the Republic of Cyprus and Turkey have been engaged in a prolonged dispute over the offshore drilling rights since the discovery of the first gas deposits off the coast of the island in 2011, with Ankara rejecting the EEZ claims of Nicosia.
