Cyprus President, Nicos Anastasiades, said this morning that he was going to his informal meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mustafa Akinci, with determination and with structured and concrete proposals.

Replying to journalists` questions upon his departure from the Presidential Palace for the meeting, taking place at the UNSG`s Special Representative Elizabeth Spehar`s residence, in Nicosia UN-controlled buffer zone, Anastasiades noted that he wouldn`t refer to great expectations about this meeting, not because the Greek Cypriot side does not want so, but because some statements that have already been made show the intentions of Turkey as regards the date for the beginning of a substantive dialogue.

Apart from that there are many other things going on and which must be terminated, with a view to prepare the ground, he noted, referring to provocations in Strovilia and Dhenia and to violations in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone.

All these must be discussed and with no doubt there are serious issues for which there must be surely a good preparation, so that we will not have the same results as in January 2017 in Geneva or later on in Crans Montana, he added.

Asked if he is conveying a concrete proposal as regards the issue of the decentralization of powers, the President replied in the affirmative.

Invited to say if this proposal will be discussed with Akinci in order to be enriched, the President said that he does not want to impose something with no discussion.

He stressed that his aim is to create the conditions of a functional state, adding that he is not focusing only on the issues concerning the functionality of the state but also on the security of the state. Therefore every issue is linked to each other, he added.

Asked if he may have more meetings with Akinci, Anastasiades recalled that after the talks in Crans Montana he had said that he was ready to return to the dialogue from the point it was left at.

He noted that it is not the Greek Cypriot side that did not want any journalists or photographers to cover such meetings.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Repeated rounds of UN-led peace talks have so far failed to yield results. The latest round of negotiations, in the summer of 2017 at the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana ended inconclusively.