Athens places great importance on maintaining dialogue, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Wednesday ahead of his planned visit to Turkey.

Greece’s prime minister accepted an invitation to hold talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Istanbul on Sunday, a rare meeting as their nations remain at odds over some issues.

Mitsotakis planned to be in Istanbul to meet the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, Patriarch Bartholomew, who is based in Turkey's largest city.

"It’s our longstanding position that the door to dialogue must remain open, just as the door to threats must remain closed," Mitsotakis said Wednesday of his scheduled meeting with Erdoğan.

NATO allies and neighbors Turkey and Greece are at odds over a number of issues, including competing claims over jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, air space, energy, the ethnically split island of Cyprus and the status of the islands in the Aegean Sea.

A dispute over drilling rights for potential oil and gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea led to a tense naval standoff in the summer of 2020. Greece has since embarked on a major military modernization program.

But the two countries also cooperate on energy projects, including a newly built pipeline that transports natural gas from Azerbaijan to Western Europe. The pipeline, which crosses Turkey and Greece, is part of Europe's effort to reduce dependence on Russian energy.

Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected maritime boundary claims by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that their excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.

Turkish leaders have repeatedly stressed that Ankara is in favor of resolving outstanding problems in the region through international law, good neighborly relations, dialogue and negotiations.