Ankara (Reuters) – Turkey wants to develop cooperation with Greece on nuclear energy, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was cited as saying on Friday after meetings in Athens, adding he hoped his visit would help improve ties between the NATO allies, but historic rivals.
Turkey and Greece agreed during a landmark visit by Erdogan on Thursday to establish a roadmap designed to usher in a new era of closer relations.
Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Greece, where he met Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and several ministers, Erdogan said the meetings were held in a “very positive” atmosphere.
“We are trying to expand, develop this cooperation not just to energy, but all areas including nuclear energy. For example, we may provide an opportunity to Greece from the nuclear power plant we will build in Sinop,” Erdogan said, without elaborating, according to his office.
He said Mitsotakis was “warm” to the idea.
Ankara and Athens have long been at loggerheads over issues including where their continental shelves start and end, energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean, flights over the Aegean Sea, and the ethnically partitioned island of Cyprus.
The two countries came to the brink of war in the 1990s, and in recent years have repeatedly argued about such issues.
Asked about resolving outstanding maritime disputes with Greece, Erdogan said Turkey’s stance on protecting its rights in the region had not changed, but that a fair sharing of energy resources was possible.
“A comprehensive and fair sharing in the eastern Mediterranean is possible. So long as we build the basis to make this happen, form correct roadmaps, and don’t give provocations an opportunity,” he said, adding a regional conference of littoral states that Ankara is proposing would be a “correct step” in forming this basis.
