Athens and Ankara should engage to resolve differences: Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday urged Aegean Sea rivals Greece and Türkiye to engage in resolving differences and avoiding unilateral actions that could increase tension.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies and neighbours are at odds over a host of issues from mineral rights in the Aegean to airspace, and over ethnically split Cyprus.

Tensions have flared recently, but Greece was one of the first countries to send rescue workers to help pull survivors from the rubble after a devastating earthquake hit Türkiye this month, killing tens of thousands.

"It is in the interest of both Greece and Türkiye to find ways to resolve longstanding differences, to do it through dialogue, through diplomacy - and in the meantime to not take any unilateral actions or use any charged rhetoric that would only make things more difficult and more challenging," Blinken told a news conference in Athens.

Blinken had met Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara on Monday.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, alongside Blinken, said Athens was not expecting anything in exchange for the support it had sent Türkiye, which included tents, beds and blankets to support the hundreds of thousands left homeless.

"It is our duty to help our fellow humans who are suffering and we will continue to do so," Dendias said.

"If communication between both societies improves the climate of our relations, this of course has political consequences. But I repeat: Greece is not seeking trade-offs from the Turkish side via the aid it provides the earthquake victims."

Particularly on the atmosphere between Ankara and Athens, which improved after Greece was one of the first countries to extend condolences and help Türkiye in the wake of major earthquakes on Feb. 6, Blinken said he witnessed the sincere reception of the Greek aid by the Turkish people and state authorities.

Blinken, who arrived in Athens Monday evening following his two-day visit to Türkiye, also met Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and discussed the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye.

On Tuesday, he and Dendias launched the fourth round of the Greek-US Strategic Dialogue.

Before the quakes, Turkish officials had expressed concern about US policy diverging from its traditional balance between Türkiye and Greece, and urged Washington to return to a more even-handed approach.