"It was a pleasure to welcome my Spanish colleague @jmalbares to #Cyprus to continue the frank talks we had in #Spain last week," Christodoulides wrote on Twitter.
As Southern European countries with similar views, he added, "linked by strong bonds of friendship and converging interests and by the benefits that Cyprus and Spain will gain from strengthening cooperation."
In its own Twitter post, the Spanish Foreign Ministry said that Mr Albares is meeting with his Cypriot counterpart and will also visit UNFICYP accompanied by its head Colin Stewart.
Meanwhile, diplomatic sources told CBC that "the presence of the Spanish Foreign Minister in Cyprus is considered to be of particular importance, as it comes a week after the meeting of the two Ministers in Madrid on the sidelines of President Anastasiades' official visit to Spain and just two days after the last meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels in which the two Ministers participated, during which the EU's next steps in response to Turkey's illegal actions in the enclave of Famagusta were also discussed."
According to the same sources, "the message from the meeting is clear: Nicosia and Madrid consider that there is mutual benefit from strengthening cooperation and coordination at the bilateral level, especially on issues of common interest from the European agenda, such as, among others, EU relations with third countries including Turkey, migration, the use of the Med-9 forum, and cooperation with the UK in the post-Brexit era."
They pointed out that Spain's stance at the last Foreign Affairs Council meeting "is not accidental and is linked to the ongoing contacts", while indicating that the Spanish Foreign Minister took office last July and the fact that he has shown particular interest in Mediterranean issues and the solidarity shown by the EU to the Southern and Mediterranean Member States is positively appreciated in Nicosia.
As they added, "the political desire of Spain, an EU Member State that has strong economic ties as well as political and trade relations with Turkey, to strengthen coordination and cooperation with Cyprus at this time is not accidental and is attributed to an effort to explore the possibility of using Madrid's access to find solutions to relevant issues currently under consideration in Brussels, which is viewed positively by Nicosia".
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