Greece is ready to start negotiations with Turkey to resolve a long-standing disagreement over maritime borders that has repeatedly brought the two neighbors to the brink of armed conflict, Greece’s newly appointed Foreign Minister said on Tuesday.

Giorgos Gerapetritis stated that the Greek government wants to “capitalize on the ongoing positive climate” in order to reach an agreement on the delimitation of zones in which each country has exclusive economic rights, including the right to explore for oil and gas in the open sea.

Turkey opposes the zones claimed by Greece, which it says fall within its own economic zone and where it seeks to initiate exploration for oil and gas reserves in the open sea.

Turkey claims the largest part of Cyprus’s economic zone, where significant natural gas deposits have been discovered in the sea.

The disagreement over exploration rights in the open sea reached its peak in a naval blockade three years ago.

An important issue that causes tensions between Greece and Turkey, which Gerapetritis aims to address, is the delimitation of specific continental shelf boundaries. This issue is directly related to the extension of Greek islands, which are located near Turkey’s coastline in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

“All that remains is to determine whether Turkey also genuinely wants to create a path of rapprochement,” Gerapetritis said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart Constantinos Kombos.

Gerapetritis stated that at the top of these priorities is an agreement to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus as a federation composed of Greek- and Turkish-speaking sectors in accordance with United Nations resolutions.

In 1974, Cyprus was divided after Turkey invaded it in response to a coup led by individuals who supported the idea of union with Greece. Currently, Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots who seceded, insist that any peace agreement must first recognize the separate sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriots.

Following the devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey in February, Greek and Turkish officials have engaged in a series of important meetings.

They have pledged to set aside the disagreements that have led to repeated tensions.

Shortly before his re-election last month, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his willingness to extend a “hand of friendship” to Turkey in an interview with the Associated Press.