Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hosted Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides at the Maximos Mansion on Friday for talks focused on full coordination between Athens and Nicosia ahead of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s upcoming visit to Cyprus — his first in nearly two decades.
Mitsotakis described the current moment as “an extremely critical juncture,” noting that diplomatic activity around the Cyprus issue had picked up significantly after years of stagnation. He reaffirmed Greece’s unwavering support for Christodoulides’s initiatives aimed at meaningfully relaunching reunification negotiations, stressing that any solution must remain strictly within the framework of UN Security Council resolutions — a position from which neither Athens nor Nicosia would deviate.
“Now is the time to explore whether progress can be turned into reality,” Mitsotakis said, referring to the Secretary-General’s upcoming visit.
The prime minister also expressed concern over broader regional developments and the escalation of hostilities affecting the Red Sea, underscoring the need for continuous coordination between the two countries. He raised the climate crisis and the devastating wildfires currently burning in Spain and France, calling for a stronger European Civil Protection mechanism and noting that Greece was already contributing firefighting aircraft.
Christodoulides: Cyprus Issue Is a European Problem
Christodoulides expressed satisfaction at the growing international and European attention to the Cyprus question, which he attributed to the targeted strategy pursued jointly by Athens and Nicosia. He said it was now clear to all parties that the Cyprus issue was a European problem, citing the appointment of a dedicated Executive Vice President by the European Commission as evidence of that recognition.
The Cypriot president said he hoped Guterres’s visit would lay the groundwork for resuming talks from where they were broken off at the Crans-Montana conference in the summer of 2017.
