MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2020) Ankara must cease all its unilateral actions undermining stability in the Eastern Mediterranean region before the EU Summit which is scheduled for the end of September, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during his speech after the Med7 7th Summit.
On Thursday the leaders of Med7 nations, which include France, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Malta, Cyprus, and Italy, held a summit on the French island of Corsica. The main topic of the agenda was the escalation of EU-Turkey tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.
"Today we send a clear message to Turkey - if it wants a dialogue with Greece, with Cyprus, with the European Union, it must prove it in practice. It must immediately stop unilateral actions [before the EU summit on September 24-25]," Mitsotakis said, adding that by these actions Ankara questions the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus.
Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean over Turkey's gas exploration initiatives have been brewing for months, as Greece and Cyprus claim the areas where Ankara conducts drilling operations as their exclusive economic zones.�
Greek Prime Minister also thanked French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel for their joint initiative to support Greece following the major blaze on the Lesbos island that had destroyed a large migrant facility and left thousands of people without shelter.
Mitsotakis has agreed with Macron's initiative to set up a common migration policy.
