UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said that the recent talks for the reunification of Cyprus have produced “substantial gains” which he intends to “build on” and “take forward”. He also expressed certainty that the relationship between Cyprus and the UK will be “fantastic” in the post-Brexit era.

Johnson attended a ‘Conservative Friends of Cyprus’ event on the sidelines of the ruling party’s annual conference, organised in Manchester this year.

“We have not in the last 12 months achieved quite what I wanted to do,” the Foreign Secretary said. “And there was a meeting in the Swiss resort called Crans Montana where we all tried to get together to resolve the Cyprus problem and we all went up to about 15,000 metres above sea level, roughly speaking, and we could see the summit figuratively, and indeed, literally. And we could see the way to the summit, we could see what needed to be done, some very simple steps that needed to be taken.

“Alas, it didn’t quite work out that way. We skidded back down the black piste a little bit, but not all the way. That is the crucial point. And there were substantial gains made in those conversations which we intend to build on and we intend to take forward,” he added.

Referring to Brexit and to whether it will affect the British-Cypriot ties, Johnson said: “Partly because of Brexit of course, we`re going to have a fantastic relationship. We are obviously huge importers of Cypriot goods of all kinds.”

He also noted that “we will intensify our trading relationship, our political relationship and above all we will intensify the deep and lasting friendship that exists between Cyprus and the Conservative Party.”

Cyprus has been divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks over the years have not yielded any results. The latest such round of negotiations, in July this year, ended inconclusively.