Germany's Foreign Minister Heiko Maas will pay a working visit to Turkey on Tuesday to hold meetings with Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the German and Turkish foreign ministers will meet in the capital Ankara to discuss "bilateral relations, Turkey-European Union relations, the Eastern Mediterranean and regional issues."
Maas is also expected to visit Athens the following Monday.
Last month German Chancellor Angela Merkel's diplomatic efforts helped defuse tensions between Turkey and Greece, after Athens objected to Ankara's seismic survey in an area south of the island of Kastellorizo (Megisti-Meis), one of the smallest Greek islands in the Aegean Sea and only two kilometers (1.24 miles) away from the Turkish coast.
But Greece's controversial move to sign a maritime delimitation agreement with Egypt, which Turkey says violates its continental shelf and maritime rights and that of Libya’s, has exacerbated tensions between the two neighbors.
Turkey announced on Aug. 10 that its seismic vessel the Oruç Reis would conduct research in the region until Aug. 23. Turkey sent out a message on Navtex, the international maritime navigational telex system, announcing the vessel would be carrying out activities off the coast of Kastellorizo between Aug. 10 and Aug. 23. On Sunday, Turkey announced that the Oruç Reis' activities had been extended till Aug. 27.
Turkey had called off an earlier search by the Oruç Reis last month to hold negotiations with Greece and Germany, which holds the rotating European Union presidency. But the mood soured last week after Greece and Egypt signed an agreement to set up an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the region. The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the "so-called maritime deal" was "null and void."
