Turkey will attend an informal meeting of the European Union in Brussels for the first time in five years, AFP reported.
Turkey has been a candidate country for EU membership since 1999, and in 2005 it started membership talks. However, the process has been frozen for years.
Ankara and Brussels have sometimes had a strained relationship, as the EU relies on Turkey to take in migrants from Syria but clashes with Ankara over its approach to Greece and Cyprus.
"We accept the EU's invitation (to attend the meeting) as an attempt at dialogue in relation to our calls for reviving relations with Turkey," the Turkish diplomatic source said.
Ankara hopes the meeting will help open channels for dialogue.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is expected to meet top Brussels officials, including EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell and enlargement commissioner Oliver Varhei.
"It will be in the interest of both countries to improve their relations against the background of regional and global challenges. Turkey's firm position on the Cyprus issue will be explained again to the EU," the diplomatic source said.
On Cyprus, the EU has launched calls to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a bilateral solution and wants Ankara to allow new UN-brokered talks.
The EU member state of Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish forces occupied its northern third in response to a military coup sponsored by the junta ruling Greece at the time.
Fidan's talks with European counterparts will also focus on the new customs union and the easing of visa rules for Turkish citizens.
The Turkish minister is also likely to meet his Greek counterpart Georgios Gerapetritis during the meeting. | BGNES
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