Following Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias' parcipation in an Atlantic Council virtual summit yesterday, Greece's top diplomat said differences with Turkey can "be very easily resolved."
He said that differences can be "very easily resolved if Turkey would subscribe to the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, or at least if Turkey would accept the UNCLOS as the standard terms of references for resolving delimitations and sea zones."
Turkey is one of only 15 countries of 193 United Nations member states that has not signed UNCLOS because it is in line with Greece's maritime rights that Ankara continually challenges.
Although the U.S. is also one of these 15 countries, in which many are landlocked countries, that has not signed UNCLOS, it does accept it as customary law, something Turkey does not.
By rejecting UNCLOS and acting unilaterally, Turkey is attempting to redraw the map of the East Mediterranean without any consideration for Greece's maritime sovereign rights.
"The United States, which supports exactly the same ideas, for example, in the Pacific Ocean, would be the ideal partner that will help persuade Turkey that this corresponds to a better future for Turkey, a more stable future for our region," Dendias said.
The foreign minister then explained that although the "European Union also has a role to play," it has to "become a big power geopolitically" and not just an economic one.
Looking towards Cyprus, Dendias said "if reason prevails, Turkey and the Turkish-Cypriots would understand that the solution of the Cyprus issue according to the Security Council Resolutions, according to the international law."
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