Greek Prime Minister held more than two hours of talks on Tuesday in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential mansion, with talks ending at roughly 19.30 local time.
Tsipras is on a two-day official visit to the neighboring country, accompanied by Alternate FM Giorgos Katrougalos – as Tsipras now holds the foreign ministry portfolio – and Alternate Economy Minister Stergios Pitsiorlas. He companion, Peristera Baziana, is also in Turkey.
In an earlier Tweet from his official account, Tsipras wrote that “we now have the opportunity to again grab the thread of a sincere dialogue to restart our positive agenda, towards the benefit of our people and the greater region.”
Earlier, government sources told reporters that the Tsipras-Erdogan meeting was judged as necessary in order for channels of communications to remain open between the neighbors on a series of issues.
According to the Greek side, at least, issues up for discussion are the decades-old and protracted Cyprus problem, bilateral trade, energy sector cooperation, the ongoing migrant/refugee crisis and regional developments.
