Confidence-building measures in Chania: Greece and Turkey review 2026 steps and the 2027 plan, Hürriyet says Athens is “slowing down”

A new round of talks on confidence-building measures (CBMs) between Greece and Turkey took place on Friday, October 9, in Chania, hosted by the Greek Ministry of National Defence. The meeting was announced by the Turkish Ministry of National Defence in a post on X.

According to the announcement, both delegations were made up of ambassadors, senior officers and civilian officials. The two sides reviewed the CBMs agreed for 2026 and discussed the implementation plan for 2027. The Turkish ministry says the meeting was held “in a positive atmosphere” and that the next round will be hosted by Turkey.

What Hürriyet writes

Hürriyet links the meeting to the interview given by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Athens, and headlines its report “Messages from Athens to Ankara are soft”. According to the newspaper, the prime minister described developments in the Aegean as a “slight ripple”, said there is no meeting scheduled with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, but reminded that he is the prime minister who has met him most often. The two leaders last met in a tête-à-tête in Ankara in February.

Hürriyet also claims that Athens is “slowing down” on the cable issue (in Turkish, “shifting down a gear”), writing that responsibility for supervising submarine cables and other critical undersea infrastructure has been transferred from the Navy to the Coast Guard. The newspaper presents the decision as a measure that could prevent a stand-off between Greek and Turkish warships, as happened two years ago.

The “breeze” according to Milliyet

Milliyet relays the prime minister’s phrase that “there is a breeze in the waters of the Aegean, a slight ripple”, which he accompanied with an assurance that this is not unusual, likening diplomacy to the weather. Milliyet adds that Mitsotakis, speaking to Skai radio, insisted that the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) can and must go ahead without any concession of the country’s sovereign rights, and that Greece will keep its qualitative edge with the F-35s and the modernisation of its F-16s. A few days earlier the prime minister had described the GSI as a European project, no longer only a Greek and Cypriot one.

Hürriyet also reports that Mitsotakis stressed the importance of the framework of communication that includes political dialogue, the CBMs and high-level contacts, with meetings also within October. “The important thing is to always be able to pick up the phone and call the other side,” he reportedly said (translated from the Turkish report).