ATHENS — "Exploratory talks between Greece and Turkey are an important step, but it is not the big step," Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said in an interview with Euronews.

He pointed out that Turkey was the one that interrupted the meetings in 2016 and not Greece, noting that the important thing is that these talks resumed. It was a "reconnection" meeting, we will see where we will be led, he added.

Focusing on the positive side, Dendias characterised extremely important the fact that Turkey decided that the diplomacy of battleship leads to nothing and resumed efforts to come to a common ground with Greece, Cyprus and the European Union.

"I hope we can make the most of it. Because this will be in the interest of our societies, the interest of Europe, the interest of Turkey, the interest of Greece, the interest of Cyprus," he added. Clarifying the nature of the exploratory talks, he said that they are not negotiations. These are talks at the level of ambassadors, which are trying to set the reference terms in order to have real negotiations," he added.