The Greek Cypriot side is aware of the statements by the Turkish Cypriot side and is approaching the upcoming multilateral meeting in Geneva with realism, government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Wednesday.

The meeting is to be conducted in the Swiss city under the auspices of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on March 17 and 18.

Representatives from Cyprus as well as the island’s three guarantor powers, Greece, Turkey and the United Kingdom are set to attend.

“Our side is proceeding, mainly bearing in mind that a multilateral conference under the auspices of the UN secretary-general himself is of the highest value and importance,” Letymbiotis said after a meeting of the cabinet.

This was especially true during a difficult period, he said, and was the result of persistent efforts by the current administration to bring the Cyprus issue forth from a period of stagnation.

Despite international and regional developments and a turbulent international arena, Guterres had focused his attention on Cyprus, which proved his commitment to restarting talks, Letymbiotis said.

The Greek Cypriot side had completed the necessary preparatory work, in coordination with the Greek government, he added, referencing the meeting on Monday between President Nikos Christodoulides and the Greek prime minister.

It is through dialogue that any positive progress in the Cyprus issue could be achieved, the spokesman added.

The goal of the multilateral summit was a resumption of negotiations from the point where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana in 2017.

“What we want to achieve is [to intensify] the mobility that was achieved […] following the appointment of [UN Envoy Maria Angela Holguin] after the dinner of October 15,” which was what had led to the upcoming conference, the spokesman said.

Asked whether Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar’s demands were red lines Letymbiotis said they were “not red lines imposed by the Greek Cypriot side but by the international community”.

“The entire international community [via the] the UN security council, has repeatedly defined the agreed framework, which is none other than a bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality,” he said.
Greek Cypriot negotiator Menelaos Menelaou and UN Assistant Secretary-General Rosemary Di Carlo had met in preparation for Geneva, the spokesman said.

The names of the officials expected to accompany the president on his mission to Geneva will be announced over the following days, he added.

Christodoulides had said on Saturday during a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Athens that he would attend the five-party meeting with a “clear plan”.

“I want to express publicly that I am going to Geneva with a clear plan, a clear design. We know very well what we want to achieve, and that is nothing more than the resumption of talks from where they were interrupted in the summer of 2017,” he said at a joint press conference at the Maximos Mansion.

On Tuesday, Tatar had said that he did not view one of the meeting participants, that is the UK, as a neutral guarantor in Cyprus and earlier he had said the Turkish Cypriot side would act “in a constructive manner”, but formal negotiations could only begin once the Turkish Cypriots’ sovereign equality and equal international status had been accepted.

“I wanted the motherlands present […] while the UK [is] losing its neutrality,” as could be seen in its relationships with Israel and “south Cyprus”, he told the Turkish Cypriot broadcaster BRT.

He added that he “did not find it right” for the European Union to send a delegation to the meeting.
“Crans Montana is over for us,” he said. “We will go there to talk about the future […] we are not going for a federation which was surrendered from yesterday.”

Tatar reiterated his staunch position for sovereign equality via the ‘three Ds’: direct flights, direct trade and direct contacts.

Despite his caveats, Tatar said that in the absence of negotiations, there was still fertile ground for Cyprus’ two sides to cooperate.