Foreign minister set to meet UNSG
Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos is set to have a meeting in New York with the UN secretary general to underline the island’s readiness to restart negotiations, President Nikos Christodoulides said on Sunday.
CyBC later reported that the meeting would take place in New York on Tuesday July 11.
We are in contact with the UNSG, who recognises our readiness to resume talks and in a few days there will be a private meeting with the Secretary general on exactly how we coordinate following the Secretary-General’s contacts with the EU with the aim of resuming talks, Christodoulides said.
Asked about criticism from opposition parties that little has been done to restart talks, Christodoulides said he did “not know what purposes it wishes to serve, but the data is there for anyone to see, for anyone to hear and for the Cypriot people to judge us all.”
The meeting between UNSG Antonio Guterres and Kombos has already been set, he added.
Christodoulides said he has already written to the UNSG about Nicosia’s stance, “we simply do not advertise the actions we are taking, we are not interested in the communication management of the Cyprus problem, we are interested in the effective management of the Cyprus problem and how we break the deadlock and resume talks”.
The foreign minister, he added, will be there to “convey a specific message”.
The president said a lot is being done, and what interests the government is how to break the deadlock. “That’s where our effort is focused, any criticism is welcome.”
Last week the EU Council resolution included a paragraph on Cyprus, which Christodoulides expressed his satisfaction with.
The EU’s leading and active involvement, both in breaking the deadlock and resolving the Cyprus problem, is imperative, Christodoulides said earlier on Sunday, adding that the government has seen this process start.
The status quo, he said, does not allow any citizen of the island to enjoy the rights, freedoms and level of prosperity that all other citizens in the European Union consider indisputable.
The goal, he said, is to resume a meaningful dialogue from where it was interrupted in the summer of 2017, to hand over to future generations a homeland without occupying troops, without foreign guarantees, reunited, modern and European.
“And it is precisely in this context that the leading and active involvement of the EU, both in breaking the deadlock and in resolving the Cyprus problem, is imperative, and it is in this direction that we have been working since the first day of assuming office and we see with cautious optimism, the initiative we have undertaken receiving international recognition and an effort to implement it has begun,” he said.