President of the Republic of Cyprus Nikos Christodoulides said on Thursday that his message to the Turkish President during their meeting on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit, in Hungary, was clear about the need to resolve the Cyprus issue on the basis of the agreed framework.

According to a press release by the Presidency, in his statements, on the sidelines of the European Political Community Summit held in Budapest, the President of the Republic said that “within the context of my presence here I had the opportunity to discuss with many foreign leaders and in this context I had the opportunity to exchange views with the Turkish President as well as the Turkish Foreign Minister. My message in both cases was clear: the need to resolve the Cyprus issue on the basis of the agreed framework.”

“I expressed our readiness, the Republic of Cyprus, to be helpful in strengthening EU-Turkish relations, in parallel with concrete, substantive progress for the solution of the Cyprus issue, always on the basis of the agreed framework,” he stressed.

He said he heard the intervention of the Turkish President at the Summit, that he was present during his intervention. “He did not mention the Cyprus issue, he mentioned a number of issues concerning challenges for Turkey and at the same time he also mentioned Turkey’s desire to get closer to the EU, to get closer to European organizations, he mentioned, for example, specifically, the European Defence Organisation. All this – and this was the message I conveyed – goes through the solution of the Cyprus problem, on the basis of the agreed framework and I said specifically that dialogue and discussion should not scare us.”

“I believe that this exchange of views – you understand we did not get into matters of substance – helps in the direction of achieving our goal which is none other than the resumption of substantive negotiations and I repeat – because I mentioned this many times to the Turkish President and the Turkish Foreign Minister – based on the agreed framework,” he stressed.

Anything outside of that framework, the President underlined, “of the UN Security Council resolutions, cannot even be discussed. And I said that this is also the clear position of the EU, a position that, I’m sure, will be conveyed by other European leaders to the Turkish President.”

I know, he added, “because we had relevant discussions, that he would meet with the President of the European Commission and the French President, and one of the issues that I asked to be conveyed to the Turkish President is that progress in Euro-Turkish relations is going through and from substantive developments in the Cyprus issue, based on the agreed framework.”

Referring to a bilateral meeting he had with the President of Switzerland, President Christodoulides said that since 1976, Switzerland, with one exception being Austria, has hosted Cyprus talks, adding that the Swiss President once again expressed her readiness to host them again, if and as long as the UN Secretary-General deems it necessary.

The meeting, he said, focused on bilateral relations, on education, research and innovation, on the new dialogue that has started between the EU and Switzerland. This dialogue, he said, will be among the issues of the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2026.

Referring to the Summit, he spoke of its importance saying that 47 states from the European continent have the opportunity to discuss, exchange views on the issues of Immigration and economic development.

Referring to Immigration, he said that there is need to find permanent solutions that can only be found through addressing the causes of the problem. He welcomed the fact that the issue of Syria is now being discussed openly, something, as he said, that we sought for a long time.

The President welcomed the fact that they are now discussing together with the relevant international organisations how to deal with the issue of Syria, how to help both as EU and in general as a European continent to create conditions in the country that would allow the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland.

He spoke of the elections in the USA, and said that the challenges we have to face in general at the international level but also internally, can be dealt with clearly better through the strengthening of Transatlantic Cooperation. He said that the Republic of Cyprus, not only supports but has also moved forward with some specific suggestions on how we should approach the new US President, so as to strengthen our cooperation even more.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in July 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.

Source: Parikiaki.com