The 3+1 Mechanism is the key to expanding the agenda, FM says
The 3+1 Mechanism is the key to expanding the agenda and ensuring the acceleration of the cooperation process, Cyprus Foreign Minister Konstantinos Kombos said, noting that the American Foreign Minister was invited to the next tripartite of the ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs delivered a speech at the Economist Conference at the Economist conference, titled “Eastern Mediterranean Business Summit”, held in New York.
During his speech titled ‘Strengthening the 3+1 Alliance: Achieving its potential’, the minister focused on the 3+1 Mechanism, saying that it is the key to expanding the agenda and ensuring the acceleration of the cooperation process, stressing that the American Foreign Minister was invited to the next tripartite of the ministers of Cyprus, Greece and Israel.
Regarding the Cyprus issue, he referred to the initiative of President Christodoulides for the resumption of negotiations, from the point they were left-off in Crans-Montana.
‘For us, the Cyprus question is an existential matter and we sincerely believe that we don’t have any more time to waste. We have taken the initiative trying to resume the negotiations from the point where they left-off in Crans-Montana in 2017. In that direction we have tried, we have spent time, diplomatic effort, diplomatic capital to put the Cyprus question back on the agenda,’ he said.
Asked how he expects relations with Turkey to develop over the next year, the key issues on the agenda and whether there is any prospect of a resumption of UN-led negotiations, he said that “there are no certainties with Turkey. We all have to wait and see how they will react to our initiative, how the United Nations will position itself in relation to this. We want to remain optimistic that negotiations will at some point resume’.
He went on to say that ‘for us this is a goal for which we will not stop working towards achieving it. Turkey has a decision to make, and we are going to try and create a condition so we are back to the negotiation table’.
Replying to a question as to how he envisages the next steps and how Cyprus’ relations with the USA can be deepened, Kombos said that ‘we believe that we have proven to be a loyal, trustworthy ally of the United States, this is a relationship we have proved our intentions, whether that is Ukraine, whether that is our response to the secondary sanctions imposed by the UK and United States, on a number of fronts. We believe that the time is right for a positive signaling from the United States. The arms embargo and the visa waiver are two issues that are, in our agenda, at the very top’.
In his speech, Kombos described the Eastern Mediterranean as “the central core of an arc of crisis. Personally, I prefer to present it as a region of endurance inhabited by survivors. I cannot imagine any other part of the world with such complex history, traumas and in a constant state of a looming crisis from remaining relevant and full of such potential. The future, through a win-win vision, dialogue and cooperation is bright’.
Source: Cyprus News Agency