NICOSIA, Cyprus — Spain’s international minister on Wednesday acknowledged her nation rejects Turkey’s unilateral gape for energy reserves within the japanese Mediterranean, adding that such actions hinder a negotiated formulation out of a territorial dispute that has ratcheted up regional tensions.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya expressed pork up for fellow European Union member Cyprus as Turkey continues to prospect for gasoline in waters where the Mediterranean island nation claims weird economic rights.

“We don’t take into consideration there is a unilateral formulation to the concerns of the japanese Mediterranean predicament,” Laya acknowledged after talks with Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides. “And due to this fact, we reject unilateral strikes that are no longer serving to in finding a lengthy-lasting solution.”

Spain’s high diplomat acknowledged negotiations and dialogue are the single formulation to be triumphant in a “lengthy-standing solution” to the advanced maritime boundaries peril, which also introduced on a weeks-lengthy naval standoff between NATO allies Greece and Turkey this month.

“I’m saying this as here’s precisely what Spain is doing to delimit its maritime borders with its neighbors. So I’m no longer preaching anything replacement from what I’m practicing,” Laya acknowledged.

Turkey insists that it’s entitled to preserve out a gasoline search off Cyprus in expose to give protection to its rights and these of Turkish Cypriots who bustle a breakaway articulate within the island’s northern third that’s identified only by Ankara.

Turkey doesn’t see Cyprus as a articulate and claims that powerful of the ethnically divided island’s weird economic zone as lying over its luxuriate in continental shelf.

Real Life. Real News. Real Voices

Help us tell more of the stories that matter

Become a founding member

Christodoulides hailed Turkey’s withdrawal of a warship-escorted witness vessel from Greece-claimed waters as a “determined first step” to deescalating tensions at sea.

However he acknowledged Turkey has stepped up its activities in Cyprus’ maritime zones, displaying a “complete dismiss” for European Union to end its “illegal” actions and to admire the sovereign rights of a bloc member.

The leaders of the EU’s 27 member countries are anticipated to focus on about attainable sanctions in opposition to Turkey, which is no longer a member, at a two-day summit initiating Thursday.

Christodoulides acknowledged Cyprus expects EU leaders to honor a deal the bloc’s international ministers struck final month to simultaneously impose sanctions on Turkey as well to Belarusian officials suspected of election fraud or involvement in a security crackdown on anti-executive protesters.

“Cyprus looks to the EU and its companions for solidarity in motion,” Christodoulides acknowledged. “Concretely upholding our standard values and interests and enforcing our luxuriate in selections is of the essence.”