Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis on Friday, Christmas Eve, touched on the need to maintain open channels of communication with neighboring Turkey, a statement that coincides with the announcement that a next round of political dialogue to prepare another Greece-Turkey High-Level Cooperation Council.

The political dialogue meetings will take place on Jan. 20 and 21 next month on so-called “positive agenda”.

Gerapetritis reiterated that the two countries are bound together by, among others, geography. He also said communication is very important in order to prevent potential tensions and crises, in comments during a radio interview.

He also defended a policy of so-called “calm waters” as a fundamental choice by Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, saying Athens has gained time to reorganize and reinforce both in country’s defense and economy, as well as to strengthen its diplomatic position in the eastern Mediterranean.

“We have developed excellent relations with all the powerful international players, and I am not just talking about the United States, but also the Gulf countries and Israel… we have major strategic relations with Egypt, we have much stronger and more resilient armed forces,” he concluded.