Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides said he will push to resume Cyprus reunification talks from where they broke down at Crans-Montana when he meets Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman on Thursday, adding he is ready to discuss confidence-building measures and has several new ideas.
Speaking to media on Tuesday as he arrived at the General Assembly of the Cyprus Property Developers Association in Nicosia, Christodoulides described Thursday’s meetings as “very critical”.
“The first is the joint visit to the anthropological laboratory where I want to send a message jointly with the Turkish Cypriot leader,” he said. The meeting afterwards would be the first in many years held in the presence of the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, he added.
“And I’m going to this meeting with one goal: how to create the conditions for resumption of talks from where they stopped at Crans-Montana,” Christodoulides said.
He said 2.5 years had been lost with the former Turkish Cypriot leader precisely because his positions on two states prevented substantial discussion on resuming talks.
Christodoulides expressed hope “this meeting we’ll have with the Turkish Cypriot leader will touch on this very substantial issue”.
“I’m ready to discuss CBMs as well, especially the implementation of what we agreed with the Secretary-General, new ideas – I have several new ideas – parallel to the substantial work for resumption of talks. Because this is the basic objective,” he said.
Asked about four preconditions set by Erhürman, Christodoulides said there are no preconditions regarding the Cyprus issue, and there cannot be preconditions that touch especially on negotiation issues.
Asked whether these could stand as an obstacle to the next expanded informal meeting, he said they would naturally go to discuss all these matters and how to create conditions for resumption of substantial talks.
(information from CNA)
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