President reviews Geneva talks in letters to UN and EU

President Nicos Anastasiades has sent letters to the UN secretary-general, the UN Security Council`s permanent and non-permanent members, EU institutions as well as EU heads of state and government briefing them on developments of the Cyprus issue.

In statements to the media on Thursday, government spokesman Kyriakos Koushos said that in his letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the president conveys his readiness to attend a joint meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader at a convenient time for the UN chief.

This joint meeting should, if possible, take place prior to the European Council meeting, during which the EU-Turkey relations will be on the agenda.

Koushos also said that in his letters to the UNSC members, heads of the EU institutions and the EU heads of state and government, Anastasiades briefs them on the informal meeting on Cyprus that took place in Geneva in late April.

In his missives, the president includes his own intervention at the informal meeting as well as the written demands on behalf of Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot side.

The president further stresses that the Turkish positions are unacceptable and unfortunately do not contribute to creating a common ground for the resumption of the Cyprus talks. He reiterates his political will and determination to participate in a new informal conference that will be compatible with the UN decisions and resolutions and the terms of the good offices mandate of the UNSG.

Koushos added that in the letters, Anastasiades reiterates his proposals for specific essential confidence-building measures that could be a key factor in changing the current climate. The president also notes that the avoidance of new provocative actions by Turkey either at sea or on land – specifically in the enclosed city of Famagusta – a positive climate could be created for the resumption of the Cyprus negotiations.

The spokesman said that in his letters to the European institutions and the leaders of the EU member states, the president makes it clear that any insistence by Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership for a two-state solution, as well as the creation of new faits accomplis or provocations, do not contribute at all to a positive approach on behalf of Cyprus as regards the upgrading of EU-Turkey relations.

On April 29, and after three days of talks in Geneva, the UN said there was not enough common ground for Cyprus negotiations to restart but that they would try again in the near future.

The island’s two communities along with the foreign minsters of guarantors Greece, UK and Turkey, had taken part in the informal summit coordinated by the UN to find a baseline from which substantive talks on the Cyprus problem might resume.