evidence: Greece and Türkiye are entangled in a complex set of disagreements that have brought them to the brink of war at least three times in the past half-century. Their last near-skirmish was in 1996 over two uninhabited outcrops in the Aegean Sea, known as Imia in Greek and Kardak in Turkish, which I experienced as a then-junior diplomat working at the Turkish Embassy in Athens. [...] Greece is hesitant about giving the impression that it is negotiating on matters such as its right to extend its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea or of sovereignty over formations like Imia/Kardak, which it contends have been settled in its favor. Hence, it restricts its official focus to continental shelf delimitation. Nevertheless, there exists a precedent for expanded discussion beyond Greece’s articulated negotiation parameters. Since 2002, the parties have conducted a series of secret exploratory talks in over sixty sessions, covering a wide range of issues that go beyond the delimitation of the continental shelf. Not much has leaked from these discontinued negotiations, but there have been occasional whispers that an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues, including by recourse to the International Court of Justice, might be achievable. Whatever the case, considerable work has been done on both sides that could serve as a basis for future negotiations. Meanwhile, the parties are currently working on a new engagement initiative called Positive Agenda, a cooperative effort covering different matters ranging from health and tourism to entrepreneurship and the environment, potentially building confidence and warming them up for negotiations on more contentious issues.