Statement by the CC AKEL  General Secretary, Stefanos Stefanou, after the meeting with the UK Minister of State for Europe and North America

 

 

We had a very interesting and constructive meeting with the British Minister of State for Europe and North America, Mr. Stephen Doughty.

We had met with the Minister in 2022 when he was visiting Cyprus as a Labour MP, so we have renewed an acquaintance from previous years and a contact that we have maintained.

The subject of the meeting was the Cyprus problem ahead of the Geneva informal meeting next week and the prospects that exist.

Admittedly, expectations are low, but we are of the opinion that, at least as the Greek Cypriot side, we should exert all efforts and exhaust every possibility with our initiatives, proposals and approaches, so as have some positive result at the Geneva meeting.

If there is no result, it will be disastrous for the Cyprus problem. But I consider that the United Nations will exert every effort to have something that will keep the momentum in the Cyprus problem alive and a perspective that will lead to breaking the deadlock in order to continue the negotiations.

I reiterated to the British Minister AKEL’s position, which he knows very well, to continue the negotiations from the point where they were left in Crans-Montana, to preserve the acquis of the negotiations and all the convergences, and to discuss the outstanding issues in the Guterres Framework.

At the same time, we informed the Minister of AKEL’s approach that a roadmap could be discussed at the Geneva meeting, depending of course on developments and the climate there; a roadmap which would lead to a discussion of the substance of the Cyprus problem, because without negotiations and without a discussion of the substance of the Cyprus problem, we cannot achieve a solution.

AKEL will accompany the President of the Republic to Geneva;  we had informed the President about this,  when he informed of  this prospect at the last National Council meeting. AKEL, Stefanou added, has the solution of the Cyprus problem as its first and decisive priority, which is why, regardless of being an opposition party, we always want to be supportive and back every effort that moves in the right direction of achieving a solution.

07.03.2025