‘Positive signs’ surrounding president’s talks with EU leaders

President Nikos Christodoulides is set to speak with senior EU member state leaders on Thursday for a briefing on their talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said that Christodoulides is to speak with the leaders of Greece, France and Germany after initial statements indicate “positive signs”.

But so far there has been no mention of the Cyprus problem, despite previous comments by the president that the issue was “surely” to be raised.

Letymbiotis said the negotiations to resolve the Cyprus problem cannot begin if Ankara holds firm on its insistence of a two-state solution.

The “positive signs” referenced by the spokesman is the agreement between Greece and Turkey to resume talks and confidence-building measures as they hailed a new “positive climate”. It also includes Erdogan’s expressed wish to resume EU membership discussions, referred to by the spokesman as its intentions towards EU accession.

Earlier in the week, Christodoulides touched on the wider scope of EU-Turkey relations.

“I am ready to discuss everything for the improvement of all types of EU-Turkey relations – thinking constructively, thinking about the future,” he said.

Elsewhere, US President Joe Biden on Wednesday expressed confidence that the US will be able to sell F-16 aircraft to Turkey.

Biden made the comment to reporters as he left the Nato summit in Lithuania. Turkey, which had been the main stumbling block to Sweden’s path into Nato, has been seeking to buy the F-16 fighter jets and modernization kits for its existing warplanes.