Month: February 2022

UN Secretary General`s Special Representative in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, will hold on Tuesday separate meetings with Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, and Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar.

Anastasiades will receive Stewart at 1100 local time, at the Presidential Palace, while the UN official will meet with Tatar, in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus, at 1500. The two sides` positions on the way forward as regards efforts to settle the Cyprus problem, in light of the latest UN Security Council resolution for the renewal of the UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six more months, are expected to be discussed during the meetings.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Defence Minister Charalambos Petrides has said that while Cyprus continues to be under occupation and Turkey threatens with new faits accomplis the National Guard, as the key preventive force for the protection of the state and its national sovereignty, is obligated to be at its highest level of operational readiness and therefore continuously enhancing the country’s defence is a must.

We are going forward with steady steps in acquiring new weapons systems which are necessary under the circumstances, Petrides noted in an address at a National Guard event, which was delivered on his behalf by National Guard Chief, Lieutenant-General Dimokritos Zervakis.

He pointed out that in this particularly critical period, during which there are increased provocations on the part of Turkey, which is going ahead with destabilising actions in Cyprus’ EEZ and following the

Source: Cyprus News Agency

Moscow has no plans to invade Ukraine, said Stanislav Osadchiy, the Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Cyprus, adding that Russian troops are on Russian territory and “pose no threat.” In an interview with CNA, Osadchiy accuses western media of stocking “hysteria” over Ukraine, while Western countries hope to avoid the questions Moscow is posing over “vital issues” concerning European security.

He also says that NATO is trying to approach the Russian border at a distance which “from our point of view, is unacceptable for Russia’s security.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

UN efforts to resume negotiations for a Cyprus settlement and the need to appoint an envoy with a specific mandate were the main points of discussion during Tuesday’s meeting between President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, according to a written statement by Government Spokesman Marios Pelekanos.

In particular, participants at the meeting discussed “the effort made by the United Nations to resume the negotiation process and the need to appoint an envoy with a specific mandate based on the parameters of the United Nations, in order to create the appropriate conditions to fulfil the effort” said Pelekanos.

Furthermore, it is noted that the essential Confidence Building Measures, presented by the President of the Republic on Dece

Source: Cyprus News Agency

The Security Council is very supportive of Confidence Building Measures, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, told the President of the Republic, Nicos Anastasiades, during a meeting at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday morning. Referring to the issue of appointing a UN Secretary General’s envoy, he said, however, that there is no agreement between the sides on the terms of his mandate.

In statements after the meeting, Stewart said he had an excellent meeting with President Anastasiades, with whom he discussed the Security Council briefing, his meeting with the UN Secretary General in New York, the Security Council resolution and his meetings in the US.

Source: Cyprus News Agency

UN Security Council and the Secretary General are keen to see an envoy appointed and to see some consensus on what the mandate is going to be, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, Colin Stewart has said.

Stewart, who was speaking on Tuesday after a meeting he had with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, also pointed out that it is important to build conditions that might create the space for an eventual settlement of the Cyprus problem.

The video of his statements was published on Twitter by the UN in Cyprus.

Source: Cyprus News Agency