The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy Jane Hol Lute is expected to hold a new round of contacts to agree on the terms of reference that will lead to the resumption of the Cyprus talks, Foreign Minister Nicos Christodoulides said on Sunday.
Christodoulides was commenting on the latest meetings President Nicos Anastasides has had with Lute in addition to his own recent contacts in the US.
“We hope that Mrs Lute will soon return to Cyprus, and also meet the other interested parties to agree on terms that will lead to the immediate restarting of peace negotiations,” the minister said while attending and event to present the newly renovated Disy offices.
“Certainly from our side this is the clear aim and one of the messages that the president gave to Mrs Lute was that this should be achieved in the shortest time possible,” he added.
We, he stressed, “wish more than anyone to see the talks immediately restarted and I repeat that this was the message the president gave to Mrs Lute and I am obliged to say that there are prospects for the restart of negotiations”.
In his report, last October, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres asked the parties to agree, the soonest possible, on the terms of reference for the resumption of substantive negotiations.
Replying to a question about the procedure necessary to agree on the terms of reference, Christodoulides said this discussion has not started yet. “Lute needs to come to Cyprus first, visit other interested parties with exactly this subject in her agenda, then conclude the terms of reference that will lead to the resumption of talks”, he said.
Asked if the terms of reference go beyond the Guterres framework, outlined by the Secretary General during the 2017 Conference on Cyprus, in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, the minister was positive. He said that the terms of reference include the convergences reached so far, the UNSG framework itself and other elements.
Asked about his contacts in the US, Christodoulides said a statement of intent was signed regarding the framework under which Cyprus and America could co-operate on security issues. He said this would involve at least six Cyprus ministries.
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