Greek Stocks Drop Most in a Month on Renewed Turkey Tensions

(Bloomberg) -- Greek shares fell the most in more than a month on reports that Turkey will send a seismic survey ship to an area Greece says is part of its continental shelf.

The Athens Stock Exchange General Index declined 2.3% on Tuesday, the biggest drop since June 11. It was down as much as 3.5% during the session.

Turkey will carry out the surveys until Aug. 2, while Greece’s armed forces are on standby monitoring for Turkish movements, state-run Athens News Agency reported. The tensions weighed on sentiment, said Alexandros Malamas, a trader at Piraeus Securities in Athens.

“Greece is following all the developments with confidence and absolute readiness,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during a meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Athens. If Turkey continues to question the sovereignty of Greece and Cyprus, the only solution for the European Union will be to impose sanctions, the Greek leader said.

Germany’s foreign minister urged Turkey to end its drilling off the coast of Cyprus, saying the EU must deliver a “clear” response to any such activities in the eastern Mediterranean.

“This is the condition for there to be any future-oriented dialog between the European Union and Turkey,” Maas told reporters in Athens during a visit on Tuesday. “There is a great deal of unity on this.”

While Greece is willing to enter into discussions with Turkey on a range of bilateral issues, the country will do whatever it takes to protect its sovereignty, Miltiades Varvitsiotis, alternate minister for foreign affairs, said in an interview earlier this month.

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