Greece and Turkey have now held talks at a military level about their mutual tensions over controversial Turkish gas drilling.

This has not yet led to an agreement on a possible way to reduce the risk of incidents.

NATO CEO Jens Stoltenberg, who reported on Thursday that both member states would meet, said that on Friday. These “technical talks” are not about negotiations to resolve the underlying conflicts, he added.

Athens had previously said it would not want to talk until Ankara would stop its “provocations”.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Friday that Greece has once again shown itself not to be in favour of dialogue and accused Athens of lying about NATO’s mediating role.

Greece is furious that the neighbouring country is scouring for gas in disputed waters near Crete. Turkey sent naval ships with the mission in the eastern Mediterranean, where the Greeks also have warships.

France is the most active of the EU countries supporting Athens and has also directed the navy to the area. The EU supports Greece, but above all wants the two fighting cocks to agree.