On Sunday, the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, expressed his willingness to participate in the Trilateral Conference to be convened by the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, on the Cyprus issue, noting that he is awaiting the setting of a date by the United Nations.
Speaking to reporters after the 13th annual memorial service for the former President of the Republic, Glafkos Clerides, at the Cathedral of St. Barnabas in Nicosia, and when asked about the upcoming trilateral meeting, the President said, “We are ready. We are waiting for the Secretary-General to set a specific date, and as soon as we receive that specific date—if there is anything else—we will be there and will respond positively.”
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He said he himself could not specify a date, as “it depends entirely on the UN Secretary-General, from whom we are waiting to hear.”
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President Christodoulides noted that the goal of the trilateral conference is to continue the discussion that began in Cyprus in the presence of Ms. Olgin, “a discussion concerning confidence-building measures, methodology, and substance.”
The President stated that “we are fully prepared; we have submitted very specific proposals on substantive issues, methodology, and confidence-building measures. We seek to resume the talks where they were suspended in Crans-Montana. I conveyed this objective to the United Nations Secretary-General the day before yesterday, and we are awaiting his invitation; naturally, we will respond positively and without delay.”
When asked to comment on the publication in *Fileleftheros* of the 19 proposals he submitted, the President said that the United Nations and the Turkish Cypriot side have been aware of them from the very beginning. “Moreover, I had submitted them to the Turkish Cypriot side before we traveled to New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Everyone had been aware of these 19 points since September 17,” he added.
When asked whether Turkey’s statements regarding a two-state solution offer grounds for optimism about progress in the talks, President Christodoulides said that “if there is genuine political will, of course I believe that the resumption of negotiations is feasible.”
Referring to the anniversary of the illegal declaration of the pseudo-state, the President said that “the international community immediately deemed it unlawful and illegal, calling on everyone not to cooperate with this entity. So many years later, and despite Turkey’s efforts, despite the position it expresses regarding the two-state solution, the international community’s position is clear, and this is the strongest message to the Turkish side,” he emphasized.
At the same time, he continued, the Republic of Cyprus, the only internationally recognized state within the United Nations and a member state of the European Union, is continually strengthening itself by bolstering all of our country’s sources of power. “This is something that inevitably influences the major effort to resolve the Cyprus problem and reunify our homeland,” he noted.
“If there truly is political will—and this is why I often say that all of us, myself included, will be judged at the negotiating table— I don’t understand why anyone would be afraid—because that’s what it comes down to—to sit at the negotiating table and discuss the matter,” he concluded.
Source: CNA
