Antonio Guterres invited the two sides to New York in the midst of two wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, President Christodoulides said, indicating this was a good sign of the SG’s intentions, as he travels to the UN headquarters tomorrow, via London, where he will hold talks with British PM Sir Keir Starmer.
‘I am prepared and cautiously optimistic on a positive result’, he added, noting the importance of the fact that the UN Secretary General had taken the initiative of organising this dinner with two on-going conflicts. He refrained from responding on any reports or indications in regard to the Guterres intentions.
‘I am travelling there aiming at a positive result and to our side this is none other than kickstarting the effort of relaunching substantive negotiations on the basis of the agreed framework’, the President further said.
On his stopover in London tomorrow, following an invitation by Starmer, they will hold talks on both developments on the Cyprus issue as well as bilateral relations, reported to have strengthened over the last period into a new ‘constructive course’, as sources describe it.
Scheduled for 16.45 in the afternoon, it will be the first Christodoulides-Starmer meeting following Labour’s landslide victory in the recent parliamentary elections. After a brief a tete a tete, there will be expanded talks of the two delegations.
The focus, say Presidency sources, will be ways of further enhancing bilateral relations and regional issues, notwithstanding the Middle East crisis. Within such a framework, the country’s major contribution to humanitarian relief will also be discussed, including the ‘Amaltheia’ maritime aid corridor for assistance to the Gaza population, as well as the Estia plan to evacuate third country nationals, during which coordination between Cyprus and the UK had been vital for the success of the operation.
President Christodoulides will brief the British PM on the MED9 leaders meeting held in Paphos on October 11th, with the participation of Abdallah, King of Jordan, during which the Middle East crisis was at the forefront, mostly on the aspect of urgent diplomatic action needed towards de-escalation.
The latest Cyprus developments will also be on the table, in light of the trilateral dinner in New York on Wednesday morning, with Nicos Christodoulides referring to the initiatives that he has taken from the outset to achieve a resumption of negotiations.
The President’s delegation includes foreign minister Constandinos Kombos, deputy minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna and the head of his diplomatic office, Doros Venezis.
