Government awaits for exact date of tripartite meeting, says Spokesman

The official announcement from the United Nations regarding the exact date for the tripartite meeting between the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and the United Nations is still expected, Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Tuesday, following the military parade for the Independence Day of the Republic of Cyprus.

Invited to comment on Tatar’s acceptance of the proposal for an informal trilateral meeting, Letymbiotis said that according to the information the government has had in the last days and during the President’s stay in New York indicated that this meeting between the President of the Republic and Tatar in the presence of the UN Secretary-General would indeed take place.

He added, ‘this initiative by the UN Secretary-General, which we welcomed from the outset and supported through our own initiatives, is considered the first obvious step. We are in contact and await the official communication from the United Nations regar
ding the exact date this meeting will be held,’ he added.

He further stated, ‘we responded positively from the very beginning, providing available dates within October that fit the President’s schedule, and we are at the disposal of the UN Secretary-General whenever and wherever this meeting can take place.’

Letymbiotis added “we are seeking a dialogue, we have full faith in the validity of our positions and arguments, as well as in the framework defined by the UN Security Council resolutions. This is precisely the framework that the UN Secretary-General himself and all the permanent members of the Security Council – as we had the opportunity to discuss during the President’s visit to New York – have identified as the one capable of resolving the Cyprus issue and addressing the concerns of both our Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot compatriots”.

Invited to comment on Tatar’s insistence on a two-state solution, Letymbiotis stated that, on the one hand, any desired progress on the Cyprus issue cannot arise f
rom public statements, and on the other hand, ‘it is clear – not only from us as the Republic of Cyprus but also from the UN Secretary-General and all the members of the United Nations – that the framework is defined by the UN Security Council resolutions’.

‘We approach this meeting with full awareness of our positions and with a constructive attitude, aiming to achieve progress through dialogue for the resumption of negotiations and the resolution of the Cyprus issue within the agreed framework,’ the Spokesman concluded

Source: Cyprus News Agency