Peace talks between Turkey and Greece have to succeed to avoid the bloodshed seen in the past, Nato's secretary general said yesterday.
After years of tension over territory and gas drilling rights, the two Nato members held discussions last week.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg has now urged them to continue in a peaceful direction to de-escalate the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean using the alliance’s “deconfliction mechanism”.
“We are reducing the risks of incidents or accidents between ships and planes in the Eastern Mediterranean coming from Turkey and Greece,” he told a Chatham House webinar.
"This is important because in the 1990s we had similar differences that led to casualties, to two serious incidents that led to fatalities and loss of personnel. We need to prevent that from happening again and that's the reason why we have established this deconfliction mechanism at Nato."
The system helped the two countries restart talks on underlying disagreements, he said.
During the three-hour meeting of delegations in Istanbul on January 25, a second round of talks in Athens was confirmed.
Relations between Turkey and Greece have become increasingly heated after the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said he would allow thousands of migrants to cross into Greece.
Warships from both sides were sent to the Eastern Mediterranean, waters contested over deep-sea gas reserves, while fighter jets patrolled overhead.
There was significant concern that an accident or miscalculation would lead to conflict, especially after two warships collided.
But Mr Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, said the countries made "important steps in the right direction", proving that Nato "has an important role to play when allies disagree".
