A series of meetings will be held over the next few days at UN headquarters, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, with those of Secretary General Antonio Guterres, President of the Republic of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Kyriacos Mitsotakis being of special interest to Cyprus, with diplomatic sources saying all players are slowly showing their cards on the Cyprus problem.
Guterres will be meeting with Mitsotakis on Thursday, President Anastasiades on Friday, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci on Monday.
Furthermore, his special envoy for Cyprus Jane Holl Lute has begun contacts with the parties and, according to sources, has already had telephone conversations with the Foreign Ministers of Greece, Britain and Turkey.
Mitsotakis will be meeting on Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Topics expected to be discussed are Greco-Turkish relations, Ankara’s provocations against the sovereign rights of Greece and Cyprus, migration flows, and the Cyprus issue.
This will be followed by a meeting between the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Greece and Turkey, Nicos Dendias and Mevlut Cavusoglu respectively.
On Wednesday evening, after a dinner hosted by the US Secretary of State for his EU counterparts, Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Christodoulides will be meeting with Acting Assistant Secretary of European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Reeker.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. Turkey has ignored numerous UN resolutions calling for the withdrawal of the Turkish troops and respect of the integrity and sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The last round of negotiations, in the summer of 2017, at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.
(Cyprus News Agency)
