As a member of the Foreign Press Association, photo reporter Doros Partasides

was invited to attend a briefing at Downing Street led by the Prime Minister’s Deputy Official Spokesperson and the Deputy Head of Foreign News.

After a brief statement on the date’s events, a question and answer session followed.

A good number were about the war between Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine, India, Iran, Turkey, USA, immigration and the economy.

In his turn, Mr Partasides’ question was as always related to Cyprus and UK-Turkey.

He asked whether the UK is changing its policy towards finding a solution to the Cyprus problem and now that the UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres is sending an envoy to the island, to find out whether there is a common path that may lead to a solution after 50 years of conflict; The UK is now promoting a solution similar to UK-Scotland-Northern Ireland.

The answer was strong and sharp: Cyprus is a friendly country, our policy is the same, we support the efforts of the UN General Secretary for a just settlement based on a bicommunal, bizonal federation, as set out in relevant Security Council resolutions.

Mr Partasides’ second question was about the military deal between the UK Ministry of Defence selling a 40 Eurofighter to Turkey. He asked whether Turkey and the UK provides reassurances that this will not be used against friendly countries such as Cyprus.

The reply was once again very clear: Turkey is a member of NATO, we are a member of NATO, and all members have special instructions on how to operate, so they can’t use them against Cyprus.