President Nikos Christodoulides will meet on Friday in New York with the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.
This is the first official meeting that Christodoulides will have with Guterres at the UN headquarters, since his election to the Presidency of the Republic in February this year.
The meeting takes place at a crucial period for the Cyprus problem, as Nicosia seeks to reactivate the process for a Cyprus settlement through the appointment of a UNSG envoy, who will look into the prospects for the resumption of dialogue.
The president has also had separate contacts in New York with US and China permanent members of the UN and diplomatic efforts are continuing on the sidelines.
Possibilities for a trilateral meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar have not been ruled out and contacts of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish foreign minister with the UNSG are being closely followed.
On Thursday Christodoulides also held meetings with a delegation of Exxon and a partner of the CVC Capital Partners Advisory investment company
Christodoulides-Guterres meeting
Christodoulides will reiterate to the UNSG the request for the appointment of an envoy within the framework of efforts for the resumption of negotiations from where they left off, recalling his proposal for more active EU engagement within the spectrum of EU-Turkey relations under UN auspices.
The Christodoulides-Guterres meeting is scheduled to begin at 12.10pm (EDT) and is expected to last for approximately 15 minutes. Almost an hour after, at 1.05pm (EDT) Guterres will meet with the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The efforts for the resumption of the process for the Cyprus question and the need for the appointment of a UNSG envoy will be the focus of a working lunch which President Christodoulides will host also on Friday for the permanent representatives of the five permanent members of the UN security council.
The president had meetings on Thursday in New York with officials of two countries which are permanent members, US Deputy Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland and Vice President of China Han Zheng, who both expressed their support to the appointment of a UNSG envoy on the Cyprus question.
Possibility of trilateral meeting
Meanwhile the possibility for a trilateral meeting between Guterres, Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader, Ersin Tatar, is still on the cards, even before Saturday evening when Christodoulides is scheduled to depart from New York.
The UNSG is scheduled to meet with Tatar on Saturday morning. There is also a possibility that a trilateral meeting will not take place now, but according to diplomatic sources, the UNSG will invite the two leaders to a joint meeting in the near future.
The meeting which Guterres is expected to have with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, will also play an important role as regards the developments in the Cyprus question. Guterres will meet Fidan in place of his meeting Erdogan, on Tuesday, which was postponed.
Fidan met on Thursday with High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. Borrell said in a post on social media that he and Fidan spoke about next steps in EU-Turkey relations, ahead of the report he will present with the EU commission to the EU council and that they also discussed the highly concerning situation in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Diplomatic efforts
Meanwhile, apart from the meetings with the UNSG, parties with an interest in the Cyprus problem are also having contacts with other officials of the UN secretariat. Negotiator for the Greek Cypriot side, Menelaos Menelaou, on Wednesday and Thursday met with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Rosemary DiCarlo, and the UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
On Friday evening Christodoulides and his spouse Philippa Karsera Christodoulides and members of the Cypriot delegation will travel to Queens to attend a dinner hosted in honour of the president by organisations of the diaspora.
During the dinner the organizations will honour the former US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, with the Freedom Award.
Meetings with Exxon and CVC Capital Partners Advisory
On Thursday afternoon Christodoulides had meetings with a delegation of Exxon and a partner of the CVC Capital Partners Advisory investment company.
During the meeting with Exxon issues concerning plans of the company in blocks of the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) were discussed.
Christodoulides and the Exxon delegation also discussed developments in the Eastern Mediterranean and actions taken by the Cyprus government to implement its plans in the EEZ.
The meeting was also attended by Government Spokesman, Konstantinos Letymbiotis, the Deputy Director of the Presidents Diplomatic Office, Doros Venezis and other officials.
During the meeting with CVC Capital Partners Advisory the companys experience in relation to its recent investments in Cyprus in the health sector was discussed, as well as possible future investments in the sector, as well as in infrastructure and education.
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Mail
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Mail
Source
