25. The subsequent meeting of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the two
States in Brussels ended in a Joint Communiqué published on 11 December 1976 which expressed satisfaction with the previous meeting in Berne.
At their next meeting on 29 January 1977 at Strasbourg, the two Ministers
for Foreign Affairs exchanged views on the subject of the negotiations
relating to the question of the continental shelf which were to begin in
London on 31 January 1977. The Ministers met again at Strasbourg on
28 April 1977 and decided to continue negotiations on the subject of the
delimitation of the continental shelf, fixing a meeting of their experts,
which took place in Paris at the beginning of June 1977. Again on 9 December 1977 the Ministers agreed in Brussels that there should shortly be a
meeting of the experts on the question of the continental shelf. This
meeting took place in Paris in mid-February 1978.
26. The Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey met at Montreux on
10-11 March 1978 and at Washington on 29 May 1978; they decided that a
meeting between the Secretaries-General of the Foreign Ministries of
Greece and Turkey should take place in Ankara on 4-5 July 1978. These
officiais, after their meeting in July, decided to meet again in Athens in
September 1978. In Athens they agreed that "the bilateral talks related to
the continental shelf question should be resumed at the appropriate level
on or about the 1 of December 1978".
27. In his letter of 24 April 1978 to the Registrar, the Ambassador of
Turkey to the Netherlands stated inter alia:
"It should, in the view of the Government of Turkey, be recalled
that that Application was filed although the two Governments had
not yet begun negotiations on the substantive issue, as is clearly
apparent from the contents of the Notes exchanged by the two
Governments. It was however always contemplated between them
that they would seek, through meaningful negotiations, to arrive at an
agreement which would be acceptable to both parties."
The letter recalled that the Security Council, by its resolution 395 (1976),
called upon both Governments "to settle their problems primarily by
means of direct negotiations in order that these might result in mutually
acceptable solutions". It argued that it was in pursuance of that resolution
that the Berne Agreement of 11 November 1976 provided in Article 1
that:
"The two Parties agree that the negotiatioris shall be frank,
thoroughgoing and pursued in good faith with a view to reaching an
agreement based on their mutual consent with regard to the
delimitation of the continental shelf as between themselves."