European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, on Friday expressed the EU’s support for the efforts to restart peace talks for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue, noting that a meeting set to take place in New York between President Nikos Christodoulides, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on October 15 was a ‘positive development’.
In her statements in the context of the opening ceremony of the dialysis unit at the Paphos General Hospital, which, she inaugurated along with Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, von der Leyen, referring to the tripartite meeting, noted ‘we welcome this positive development’.
The European Union, she added, ‘remains fully behind your efforts to resume peace talks for comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue’. This, she noted, ‘should take place within the UN framework on the basis of a bicommunal, bizonal federation with political equality’, and it should be in accordance with all relevant Security Council reso
lutions as well as in line with the principles on which the EU is founded.
‘We also stand ready to support all stages of the UN-led process within appropriate means’, von der Leyen said.
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: Cyprus News Agency