UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar, will hold a meeting early next week with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades, CNA has learned. She is also expected to hold a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.
Spehar’s meetings will take place in view of forthcoming developments in the Cyprus problem and in the framework of the preparation for the meetings which Anastasiades and Akinci will have in New York with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres
Meanwhile, CNA has learned that Greek Cypriot negotiator Andreas Mavroyiannis will preside on Monday morning a meeting with the Greek Cypriot members of the bicommunal Technical Committees.
A source has told the Agency that participants at the meeting will review the work done by the Committees during the last year, they will exchange views and submit suggestions, while guiding lines will be given for future activities.
The same source said that the Technical Committees constitute a very important tool for direct contacts between the two communities, the significance of which has been highlighted in the UNSG’s reports on Cyprus.
Meanwhile, President Anastasiades will visit on Monday Athens for consultations with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the Cyprus problem and on the two countries’ trilateral partnerships with countries in the region, and especially the Trilateral Meeting of Cyprus, Greece and Egypt at their leaders’ level to be held in October in Greece.
Anastasiades will then return to Cyprus and leave again on September 19 for Salzburg to participate in an Informal European Council which is hosted by Austria.
He will then fly to New York, where he will address the UN General Assembly on September 27.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Numerous UN-backed negotiations, aiming at reuniting the island under a federal roof, have failed to yield results. The latest talks under UN aegis took place in the summer of 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans – Montana.
