ATHENS – Talks between the foreign affairs ministries of Greece and Türkiye were held over approximately twenty days and in absolute secrecy, before the two respective ministers’ announcements came from Brussels on Monday, noted Greek diplomatic sources.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met on the day in Brussels, on the sidelines of the International Donors’ Conference in support of the earthquake-stricken people in Türkiye & Syria.

They announced that Ankara will support Greece’s candidacy for a non-permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council 2025-2026, and Athens will support Türkiye’s candidacy for the General Secretariat of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

As it was pointed out, it is important that Türkiye has declared it will support the Greek candidacy, seeing as it has announced that it holds the so-called ‘three Ds’ (Dialogue, Diplomacy and Democracy) as its compass, and holds the peaceful settlement of disputes and respect of International Law as its priority, added the Greek diplomatic sources.

The sources also said that if any problem were to arise with Greece’s candidacy, it would come from Türkiye, or the Turkic states, or from Russia. With Monday’s agreement, they stressed, one factor is ruled out.