At noon Monday, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis is scheduled to meet with President of the Cypriot House of Representatives Annita Demetriou, who is currently visiting Athens and who will also deliver a speech at 13:35 at a conference focused on security and defense issues.
The meeting between Gerapetritis and Demetriou is expected to center on bilateral relations as well as coordination on the Cyprus issue, ahead of a forthcoming informal five-party meeting that UN Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to announce in the near future.
In anticipation of the appointment of an EU representative for the informal Cyprus talks, and following Sunday’s cancellation of Monday’s planned meeting between the UN Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín, and European Council President António Costa—now rescheduled for July 13—all eyes have turned to the NATO summit in Ankara on July 7–8.
It is there that new developments are expected to potentially emerge through consultations taking place on the sidelines of the summit, where European and Turkish officials will be present, alongside the Greek side at the highest level, including Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. It remains to be seen whether he will hold any talks with the Turkish president, either informal or more structured through their respective teams.
Regarding expectations for the next steps on the Cyprus issue, Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos recently emphasized, in the context of EU–Turkey relations, that Turkey has clear obligations toward both the European Union and Nicosia. He also noted that the EU continues to engage with Turkey despite its alignment level with the Common Foreign and Security Policy standing at just 4%.
“The deepening of EU–Turkey relations is based on Turkey’s willingness to address a series of issues,” Kombos said, stressing that current discussions concern the substance of the Cyprus issue, with the aim that the upcoming meeting could pave the way for the resumption of negotiations, always within the framework set by the UN Security Council.
Asked recently about Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s repeated references to a “two-state solution,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lana Zochiou stated:
“The unacceptable demand for a ‘two-state solution’ clearly does not contribute to efforts aimed at finding a viable and fair solution to the Cyprus issue. And of course, it will not be accepted for a very simple reason: it falls outside the framework of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, as the UN Secretary-General has also stated.”
In relation to Cyprus, and ahead of the informal five-party meeting, during his June 17 meeting in Athens with María Ángela Holguín following her contacts with Cypriot President Christodoulides and Turkish-Cypriot leader Tufan Erhürman, the Greek Foreign Ministry informed diplomatic correspondents that the Greek foreign minister expressed Greece’s support for the UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his efforts to find a comprehensive, fair, and sustainable solution to the Cyprus problem.
This solution, he emphasized, must be based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation, in line with the decisions and resolutions of the UN Security Council and the EU acquis.
The Foreign Minister also underlined the importance of maintaining the momentum and diplomatic activity that has developed on the Cyprus issue over the past two years.
As the Foreign Ministry spokesperson noted, “Greece, in full coordination with the Republic of Cyprus, remains ready to contribute constructively to the next steps, with the aim of achieving the resumption of talks, within the agreed framework and under the auspices of the United Nations.”
