Turkey, Greece May Resume Talks over Disputed Waters

Turkey and Greece are at odds over the limits of their continental shelves, energy rights, air space and the status of some islands. (AFP)
Turkey and Greece are at odds over the limits of their continental shelves, energy rights, air space and the status of some islands. (AFP)
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Turkey, Greece May Resume Talks over Disputed Waters

Turkey and Greece are at odds over the limits of their continental shelves, energy rights, air space and the status of some islands. (AFP)
Turkey and Greece are at odds over the limits of their continental shelves, energy rights, air space and the status of some islands. (AFP)

Turkey and Greece said on Monday they wanted to resume suspended exploratory talks over territorial claims in the Mediterranean Sea which brought them close to conflict last year.

Plans for talks last year foundered after disagreement over a Turkish seismic exploration vessel deployed to disputed waters, but the ship has since returned.

"So Greece has no excuse right now," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters, saying he was inviting Greece for talks by the end of January on all issues.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said his government would attend once a date was set.

"We seek a fertile and productive relationship with Turkey," he told reporters in Lisbon, saying officials would have to be in contact formally. "It's probably about time we stopped chit-chatting and sat down and agreed on a date."

The two NATO military alliance members are at odds over the limits of their continental shelves, energy rights, air space and the status of some islands.

Their dispute threatened to spill into open conflict when Turkish and Greek warships collided in August as they shadowed Turkey's Oruc Reis vessel as it surveyed for oil and gas west of Cyprus.

Ankara and Athens have held 60 rounds of talks between 2002-2016, but resumption of negotiations has been complicated by what both sides are prepared to discuss.

Greece said on Monday it was willing to talk about demarcation of an Exclusive Economic Zone and the continental shelf. It was not immediately clear whether Ankara would insist on other issues being included.

Cavusoglu said he was ready to meet Greek counterpart Niko Dendias in Tirana after Albania offered to mediate. "I hope Greece does not turn down this opportunity," he said.

Under pressure from some European Union (EU) members including Germany, Greece had indicated it could resume talks on Jan. 11, the Turkish minister added.



ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
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ICC Opens Inquiry into Hungary for Failing to Arrest Netanyahu

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Budapest earlier this month. (AFP)

Judges at the International Criminal Court want Hungary to explain why it failed to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he visited Budapest earlier this month.

In a filing released late Wednesday, The Hague-based court initiated non-compliance proceedings against Hungary after the country gave Netanyahu a red carpet welcome despite an ICC arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.

During the visit, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced his country would quit the court, claiming on state radio that the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, not a court of law, but a political court.”

The Hungarian leader, regarded by critics as an autocrat and the EU’s most intransigent spoiler in the bloc’s decision-making, defended his decision to not arrest Netanyahu.

“We signed an international treaty, but we never took all the steps that would otherwise have made it enforceable in Hungary,” Orbán said at the time, referring to the fact that Hungary’s parliament never promulgated the court’s statute into Hungarian law.

Judges at the ICC have previously dismissed similar arguments.

The ICC and other international organizations have criticized Hungary’s defiance of the warrant against Netanyahu. Days before his arrival, the president of the court’s oversight body wrote to the government in Hungary reminding it of its “specific obligation to comply with requests from the court for arrest and surrender.”

A spokesperson for the ICC declined to comment on the non-compliance proceedings.

Hungary’s decision to leave the ICC, a process that will take at least a year to complete, will make it the sole non-signatory within the 27-member European Union. With 125 current signatory countries, only the Philippines and Burundi have ever withdrawn from the court as Hungary intends.

Hungary has until May 23 to submit evidence in its defense.