The Minister of Foreign Affairs Ioannis Kasoulides on Thursday had a telephone conversation with the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson, with whom he discussed Brexit.

According to an announcement issued by the Press and Information Office, during the telephone conversation, following an initiative of Johnson, the British Minister officially announced the invocation of Article 50 for the exit of the United Kingdom from the EU and reassured that Britain will always consider the EU as its partner and will continue to work with the Union in the mutually-agreed areas.

He also referred to the special ties of the United Kingdom and Cyprus, which will be taken into consideration in the framework of the negotiation.

Minister Kasoulides thanked his counterpart for the briefing and reassured for Cyprus’ wish for a smooth conduct of the negotiations that will be beneficial for both sides, avoiding any situations that could cause deadlocks.

He highlighted the consequences from the UK’s exit, especially for Cyprus, because of the fact that the sectors of trade, tourism, investments and maritime hold a big part in the Cyprus-British relations, while Cyprus is proudly implementing the customary law in the field of justice. The two countries also cooperate in issues related to the area of security.

The Government of Cyprus will make efforts for those sectors to remain unaffected and this should be part of the negotiations to be held both between the EU and the UK and the UK and Cyprus. Finally, Kasoulides informed his interlocutor that the pursuit of the Republic of Cyprus is for the current status between the citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, who leave or work in the territory of the Bases, with the status of the citizens, who leave or work in the territory of the Republic of Cyprus, to be kept.