President Christodoulides has met with the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative for Cyprus and the Chief of the UN Peace Force in Cyprus, Colin Stewart.
Government Spokesman Konstantinos Letimbiotis in his statement to the press after the meeting said that the meeting was held in light of Stewart’s visit to New York, where he will attend the UN Security Council meeting on January 16.
Letimbiotis stated that Christodoulides reiterated that the Greek Cypriot side is ready to continue the negotiations on the Cyprus issue from where they left off, in accordance with the agreed framework, and reiterated the efforts made to create conditions that will allow the immediate start of negotiations.
Letimbiotis stated that Christodoulides also expressed his readiness to hold a joint meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, solely on the issue of opening new crossing points.
Letimbiotis stated that Stewart will meet with Tatar and that he will convey this message to Tatar so that this meeting can be held as soon as possible, and said that they have presented their suggestions regarding the crossing points and are waiting, and that they are ready to hold the meeting regarding the crossing gates at any time with all their constructive attitudes.
Letimbiotis said that Christodoulides also discussed the issue of convening an expanded multilateral conference, which was decided at the October 15 dinner, and the preparation and preliminary work process for the multilateral conference, which aims to explore the perspective of resuming negotiations in light of the visit of UN Deputy Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo to the region.
Asked whether there were certain preconditions for DiCarlo to come to Cyprus, Letimbiotis said that the precondition was the decision to hold this meeting in the presence of the UN Secretary-General.
Letimbiotis continued his statement by saying that this was DiCarlo’s program and that they were also waiting for information.
Letimbiotis stated that DiCarlo personally informed him during his recent meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs that he would hold talks in the region in early 2025, and that they were pleased that these talks would take place because they believed that the necessary preliminary preparations and work should be done for this meeting to have a result.