Relations between the EU and Turkey, as well as the Cyprus problem, will be discussed at a working lunch on Thursday between the EU foreign ministers and their Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

During the working lunch, in the framework of the ministers’ informal meeting in Brussels, will be presided over by High Representative Josep Borrell.

European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said on Tuesday that Cyprus was an important part of EU-Turkey relations and that discussions with Turkey would cover interests that “either converge or overlap”.

Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis will be meeting Fidan on the sidelines of the informal meeting, with Cyprus among issues on their agenda.

Gerapetritis and Fidan will discuss EU- and Greco-Turkish relations and the Cyprus problem, in view of the upcoming meeting in New York between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly, Greek diplomatic sources said.

The sources said it was “especially important that after five years a Turkish foreign minister was participating in the lunch of the informal meeting, because it gives us the opportunity to raise, before the EU foreign ministers, issues that concern us.”

The informal meeting will begin with Russian hostilities against Ukraine.

During the working lunch, the ministers will exchange views on EU-Turkish relations, as well as regional and international matters of mutual interest.

On Thursday afternoon, they will discuss developments in the Middle East, with the participation of UN coordinator Sigrid Kaag, who will brief them on the humanitarian situation on the ground.

The ministers’ agenda also includes the political crisis in Venezuela.

The informal meeting will be wrapped up at around 6.15pm Cyprus time, with Borrell’s statements to the press.