Nicosia: Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Tuesday there are expectations from the upcoming first meeting between the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, and the new Turkish Cypriot leader, Tufan Erhrman, reiterating that the two-state solution is rejected by definition.
According to Cyprus News Agency, Mitsotakis expressed his satisfaction with the easing of tensions between Greece and Turkey over the past two years, while noting that “obviously, thorny issues remain,” including the Cyprus issue. “I am very concerned and not happy about the fact that we continue to see statements in favor of the two-state solution in Cyprus, which is rejected by definition, not only by us but also by the entire international community,” the Greek Prime Minister said.
“I certainly have expectations from the first meeting between President Christodoulides and the new Turkish Cypriot leader,” he added. On the issue of the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection and the possibility of foreign investors participating in the project, Mitsotakis said that much greater interest exists from international investors, including the US, for interconnection projects in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“In order to quantify and further expand this interest, the technical data for the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection cable needs to be updated,” he pointed out, also mentioning that the Cypriot government agrees on this issue. Mitsotakis also referred to the importance that the Greek government attaches to the recent agreement on hydrocarbons in the Ionian Sea with ExxonMobil, Energean and Helleniq Energy.
As he said, as a result of this agreement, over the next 18 months there will be an exploratory drilling in the Ionian Sea, which will mark the “first exploratory well for natural gas in our country in 40 years.”