ATHENS -(Dow Jones)- Greece and Turkey on Friday agreed to step up bilateral contacts in an effort to resolve long-standing problems between the two neighbors while also agreeing to a series of joint declarations to boost trade and cooperation.
During an historic visit to Athens, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Greek counterpart, George Papandreou, chaired the first meeting of a high-level cooperation council and agreed to meet once a year.
In addition, the two leaders signed 21 memoranda on issues ranging from immigration to energy and tourism in an effort to develop warmer ties and work together on shared commercial interests.
"We agreed that we should further strengthen cooperation, and establish a framework of friendship and peace in the place of historical differences," said Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou at a joint press conference. "The depth and number of agreements we have signed is an indication of the historic nature of this meeting."
However, the two leaders failed to make any breakthrough on thorny issues like cutting defense spending or territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea. Both pledged to redouble efforts to find a solution to the problem of the divided island of Cyprus.
The two regional rivals came close to war in 1996 over an uninhabited islet near the coast of Turkey. Since then, however, relations have improved dramatically thanks, in part, to the efforts of Papandreou who helped engineer a thaw in relations during his tenure as Greek foreign minister from 1999 to 2004.
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