Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis announced a packed diplomatic schedule tomorrow aimed at restarting substantive Cyprus talks.
At 8:15 am tomorrow, President Nikos Christodoulides will meet EU Special Representative for the Cyprus problem Johannes Hahn. Letymbiotis described the EU envoy’s appointment, a personal goal of the President from day one, as creating “additional diplomatic capacity that did not exist until now and is certainly available for exploitation”.
The meetings take place at a critical moment. UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy María Ángela Holguín is already in Cyprus.
Tomorrow at 3:15 pm, President Christodoulides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman will jointly visit the Anthropological Laboratory of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP). “This is a move with strong symbolic meaning,” Letymbiotis said. “It sends a joint message of shared responsibility and duty towards all families still seeking closure, underlining that the search for truth about our missing persons remains unrelenting.”
Immediately after, the two leaders will hold a rare trilateral meeting with Holguín; the first such joint meeting with a UN envoy in Cyprus for many years.
President Christodoulides approaches the talks “with seriousness, constructive attitude, calm and political will”, keeping one sole objective: restarting substantive negotiations from where they left off, always within the framework of UN Security Council resolutions and EU principles, values and acquis.
The President will focus on substantive Cyprus problem issues and push for the earliest possible convening of the next multilateral conference, as announced by the UN Secretary-General, and review progress on confidence-building measures agreed at the last two conferences.
National Council convened
President Christodoulides has called a National Council meeting for Friday afternoon, 12 December, to brief political leadership on the outcome of the latest contacts.
On Erhürman’s four preconditions
Asked about Erhürman’s insistence on four preconditions, Letymbiotis reiterated the government’s consistent approach over the past two and a half years: “Progress on the Cyprus problem is not achieved through public statements. If we truly want progress, resumption of talks and preservation of the only internationally recognised framework, the UN Security Council resolutions, there can be no preconditions. What must be at the centre is sincere dialogue, presentation of positions and arguments, and full alignment with international law and EU principles.”
Missing persons and mass graves
Regarding possible discussion of access to areas believed to contain mass graves currently blocked by the Turkish occupation army, the Spokesman stressed the CMP lab visit itself sends the clearest message.
“We repeat at every opportunity and every international forum that the humanitarian issue of the missing cannot remain unresolved and cannot lack the necessary progress and speed so that families finally receive at least some degree of closure about the fate of their loved ones.”
Source: Kathimerini
Featured photo: Ant1 Cyprus
Also read: Holguín meetings in Cyprus with Erhürman and Christodoulides
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