Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday again reiterated Athens’ standing positions regarding whatever claims put forth by official Turkey, and ahead of possible meeting this month with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Mitsotakis spoke during a televised interview broadcast on the Skai channel.

The Greek prime minister merely reminded that an extension of territorial waters to 12 nautical miles is Greece’s unilateral and inalienable right.

In referring to Greek-Turkish relations in general, he also stressed that a solution may be to refer any dispute to an international judicial body.

File photo: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, left, greets Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Athens, Greece.

“You understand that as long as the theory of grey zones is on the table, as long as sovereignty, not sovereign rights, is indirectly disputed in the Aegean and as long as the threat of war hangs over us, it is difficult to reach that point,” he added.

Asked about a recent statement by Turkish FM Hakan Fidan over a “permanent solution” in the Aegean, Mitsotakis also underlined that Athens recognizes only one difference and open issue with Turkey, namely, the delimitation of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

File photo: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, right, with his Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis in Ankara, Turkey.

“When Turkey adds other issues to an agenda (of talks), you understand that I consider it difficult to proceed further in this direction. Nevertheless, I consider Mr. Fidan’s statement to be a positive acknowledgment that Turkey may be reconsidering some of its long-standing issues and not highlighting them with the same intensity as it did in the past,” the Greek leader said, while nevertheless reminding that after the Fidan statement Ankara issued a Navtex that included all the long-standing positions of the Turkish defense ministry – which Greece considers as baseless.

Finally, he termed the “threat of war” as something anachronistic and a stigma that resulted in Ankara’s recent exclusion from EU’s SAFE program for defense spending and production capacity.

“As long as the casus belli (against Greece) exists, Turkey cannot receive European funding, and despite the doubts of some, we were able to achieve its exclusion,” he concluded.