(Bloomberg) --
Turkey said it expects to hold talks with Greek authorities in the coming days, in what would be the first official meeting since Ankara said it will hold off on surveying the seabed in an area of the eastern Mediterranean contested by the two NATO countries.
“We expect to have a meeting with our Greek neighbors in the coming days in Ankara,” Defense Minister Hulusi Akar was cited as saying by state-run Anadolu Agency. “We try to solve the issues with these kinds of meetings. Our efforts continue in this way.”
Tensions between Athens and Ankara flared up after Turkey said it would send a seismic research vessel, the Oruc Reis, into an area south of the coastal city of Antalya and the Greek island of Kastellorizo, which both countries say falls into their respective continental shelves. Last week, Ankara said it will hold off on the survey to give time for diplomacy.
Here's What Is at Stake as Turkey-Greece Tensions Rise Again
Ankara argues that a country's continental shelf should be measured from its mainland, and that the area south of the Greek island -- just a few kilometers off Turkey's coast — therefore falls within its exclusive zone.
Greece says that islands must also be taken into account in delineating a country's continental shelf, in line with the United Nations Law of the Sea, giving it the sole right to the area regardless of the island's proximity to Turkey. Turkey hasn't signed up to that law.
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