Greek PM Mitsotakis in Brussels to take part in EU Summit on Turkey and foreign affairs

In a letter to European leaders on Wednesday, Charles Michel said that "the EU's objective is to have space for a constructive dialogue with Turkey to achieve stability and security in the whole region, and to ensure full respect for the sovereignty and sovereign rights of all EU member states."

"Cyprus looks to the EU and its partners for solidarity in action," Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides said after a meeting with his Spanish counterpart, Arancha Gonzalez Laya.

"Concretely upholding our common values and interests, and implementing our own decisions is of the essence."

Cyprus is withholding its consent to European sanctions on Belarus because it wants tougher measures from the bloc on Turkey, which it says is violating its maritime rights. Greece supports Cyprus's position.

Senior EU diplomats have said the bloc is unlikely to accede to Cyprus' demands, after Ankara agreed to talks with Greece in a separate, but related issue.

Turkey dispatched two survey vessels to separate areas in the eastern Mediterranean this year, drawing strong protests from both Cyprus and Greece, which say Ankara is operating on their respective continental shelves. Turkey says its within its rights.

While the vessel close to Greece has been recalled by Turkey to allow for exploratory talks between the two NATO allies, the ship close to Cyprus, the Barbaros Hayrredin Pasa, is still operating south-east of the island.

"Unfortunately.. signals of de-escalation have not been extended to Cyprus," Christodoulides said.

Laya said dialogue was needed to resolve the issue, not unilateral action. "(That) is what Spain has been advocating between Greece and Turkey and which Spain advocates between Cyprus and Turkey," she said.

Eastern Mediterranean tensions are to be discussed at the summit of EU leaders meeting Oct. 1-2.

Turkey touts past maritime conquests ahead of talks on Mediterranean dispute

As Turkey and Greece prepare for talks to calm a bitter maritime dispute, Ankara released a video this week glorifying a 16th century naval victory which led to the Ottoman Empire taking control of the Mediterranean.

The video, shared on Twitter by the presidential communications department and viewed nearly half a million times, intersperses tales of ancient sea battles with footage of modern Turkish warships, driving home a message that Turkey must defend its interests in offshore waters.

This doctrine, called "Blue Homeland" in the video and accompanying song, has been championed by President Tayyip Erdogan's government as it challenges Greek and Cypriot maritime claims that confine Turkey to narrow strips of Aegean and Mediterranean coastal waters.

The policy, mirroring Turkey's assertive military interventions on land in Syria and Libya, has come to prominence in the last year - more than a decade after it first emerged - and is feeding into the east Mediterranean dispute.

Retired rear admiral Cihat Yayci, who had a major role in developing the doctrine, said Turkey's maritime policies were sharpened by the "aggressive stances" of Greece and Cyprus, which signed a series of accords marking out an exclusive economic zone in the east Mediterranean since 2003.

"They didn't want to share the seas with Turkey, they wanted to seize Turkey's seas. Turkey realized this," Yayci told Reuters.

The row burst into the open again last November when Turkey signed a maritime boundaries accord with Libya, which had been mooted by Yayci a decade earlier but which Athens said cut across its own claims.