Five years ago Greece and Turkey were on the verge of a border war over islands (islets, actually) in the eastern Aegean. The situation has changed, for the better. On February 12 Greece and Turkey launched a new series of bilateral talks to settle their long-running dispute over their Aegean Sea boundary. In this dispute, Turkey has focused on airspace and territorial waters issues. Greece wants a settlement on what it calls continental shelf rights (minerals, fishing, etc). On February 13, Greece and Turkey signed a new bilateral economic agreement, one that focused on transport (road and rail) issues.