Christodoulides: I am going to Geneva with a clear plan
Source: Cyprus Mail
President Nikos Christodoulides on Saturday said he will attend the enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in the Swiss city of Geneva later this month with “a clear plan”, during his meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens.
“I want to express publicly that I am going to Geneva with a clear plan, a clear design. We know very well what we want to achieve, and that is nothing more than the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017,” he said at a joint press conference at the Maximos Mansion.
He added that the talks must “build on the achievements of those talks and go ahead with the sole aim of resolving the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework – the principles and values of the European Union”.
He was also keen to stress the EU’s support for a bizonal, bicommunal, federal solution to the Cyprus problem, saying Brussels “supports this effort … to achieve a solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the agreed framework”.
“I want to state publicly today: anything that goes beyond the agreed framework is not even up for discussion, and I am glad that this is also the position of the international community,” he said.
He added it is a “happy coincidence” that a European Council meeting is set to take place shortly after the Geneva meeting, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also set to attend.
At that meeting, he said he will have the opportunity to inform other EU member states’ heads of governments on the state of play of the Cyprus problem.
Additionally, he said the Geneva meeting is “also related to what we are currently discussing at the international level.
“In particular, in a period when attempts are being made to question the basic principles of international law, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Geneva meeting is of particular importance”.
Mitsotakis added, “I appreciate your overall efforts to keep this dialogue alive, to achieve, at last, a just and sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem, relying on the decisions of the UN.
“I want you to know that Greece, to the extent to which it is responsible, will participate and will always support these efforts of yours,” he said.
The enlarged meeting will take place on March 17 and 18 and will see both Cyprus’ sides as well as representatives of the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom, and the UN convene to discuss the Cyprus problem.
On Friday, both Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar met the UK’s minister of state for Europe Stephen Doughty.
Comments made after Christodoulides’ meeting with Doughty largely steered clear of the Cyprus problem and instead focused on relations between Cyprus and the UK, while Tatar had spoken after the meeting of a will to cooperate with the Greek Cypriot side while not negotiating with them.
The original article: belongs to Cyprus Mail .
