ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey wants to improve ties with the European Union on the basis of full membership, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday, adding that problems between them could only be solved if the bloc acted with common sense at a summit this week and beyond.
On Monday, EU foreign ministers said Turkey had failed to help resolve a dispute with EU members Greece and Cyprus over natural gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean, but they left any decision on retaliatory sanctions for an EU summit on Thursday.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto in Ankara, Cavusoglu said Greece had continued “provocative” steps in the region despite Turkey’s efforts to use diplomacy, adding that Ankara expected the EU to act as an honest and objective mediator in the dispute.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Daren Butler)
