Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos will convey to UN Secretary-General the Greek Cypriot side’s sincere will for fresh talks on the Cyprus problem under the agreed framework on the basis of the UN Security Council resolutions, Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis has said.
Kombos on Tuesday will meet Antonion Guterres in New York, while he also will have a series of contacts with high-ranking officials of the UN Secretariat.
‘This meeting follows of a telephone conversation the President of the Republic had with the UN SG and the letter he sent to Guterres,’ Letymbiotis said replying to journalists’ questions in Pafos on Sunday.
The Foreign Minister will convey to the UN SG the sincere will of our side, the Cypriot government, for the resumption of the talks within the agreed framework according to the Security Council resolutions, Letymbiotis added.
He furthermore noted that Kombos ‘will also convey the results of the initiative assumed by the President over a more active involvement by the EU and how this could support the UN efforts.’
Moreover, the Spokesperson recalled the NATO Summit in Vilnius Lithuania, where Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and other EU partners will have bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stating that ‘the initial intentions (of the Turkish side’s) over the resumption of the talks will be revealed.’
‘The message we are sending at every opportunity’, he added, ‘is that we stand ready to contribute constructively in this effort through an initiative we have proposed, utilising our status as an EU member-state and we hope that the Turkish side and or Turkish Cypriot compatriots will respond to the immediate resumption of the negotiations.’
Concluding, Letymbiotis said the Foreign Minister ‘will once more call on the UN chief to appoint an envoy the soonest possible which we believe will have an added value to the efforts we are making.’
Meanwhile, addressing a memorial service held in Pafos, for heroes of the village of Kampos who have fallen during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Letymbiotis said the reaching a viable solution to the Cyprus problem constitutes a top priority for the government of President Christodoulides.
We will do our utmost to lift the current stalemate and revive the UN-led negotiations, Letymbiotis concluded.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Numerous rounds of UN-led talks have failed to yield results.
Source: Cyprus News Agency