Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) meets with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 13, 2022. (Photo: Xinhua)   

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis pledged on Sunday to boost mutual cooperation "despite their disagreements."

Erdogan and Mitsotakis met over lunch in Istanbul behind closed doors, Turkey's presidential office said in a statement, adding the main agenda of the two leaders was bilateral and international relations, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Erdogan and Mitsotakis agreed to keep communication channels open and improve bilateral relations despite some disagreements between the two countries, said the statement.

The Turkish leader told the Greek prime minister that he maintains his belief in taking relations to a high level and making progress in issues that strained their relations.

The relations between the two NATO allies have long been at odds over a series of issues, including maritime and energy issues in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

Greece said that both sides stressed building a positive agenda mainly in the area of the economy, where they hope to make progress in the coming months.

"We have big differences which cannot be overcome just like that," Mitsotakis told Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew after meeting Erdogan.

"I believe we set the foundations to improve our relations," he said, adding that if there was good progress, Greece might organise in autumn a High-Level Cooperation Council meeting, a mechanism the two countries set up in 2010 for their rapprochement.

The countries came close to confrontation in 2020 when Turkey sent a drilling ship to contested Mediterranean waters. The situation eased after Ankara withdrew the vessel, and the neighbours resumed bilateral talks in January 2021.

They made little progress in 60 rounds of talks from 2002 to 2016.

Xinhua/Reuters/VNA