MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th February, 2021) The European Council will soon begin preparations for a "strategic debate," scheduled for next month, on the bloc's relations with Turkey in the context of tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, Council President Charles Michel said on Friday.
"We intend to have again in March a strategic debate on the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean and the relationship between the EU and Turkey, and we will prepare this debate in the next days and the next weeks," Michel said at a briefing after a virtual Council meeting.
While admitting that Turkey's NATO membership was an "important element," the European official stressed nevertheless that Brussels wanted more stability and predictability in the Eastern Mediterranean and that it experienced "some difficulties" with Ankara in this regard in recent months.
"We will try to do our best in order to protect the European interests, to protect also the interests of our member states," Michel added.
Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean evolved around Turkey's drilling for gas in waters which Greece and Cyprus claim as their exclusive economic zones. Despite the controversy, Ankara only further boosted its presence and sent military vessels to the area last summer, causing anger on a higher European Union level and in such member states as France and Italy.
