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The President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Nicos Christodoulides, attended a working lunch with the leadership of the FCC at the premises of the FCC today.
In his statements to journalists, coming to the working lunch and being asked about it, the President of the Republic said that "it is known that we are in a continuous dialogue with the FPC, there are common goals, common aspirations, common concerns and in this context today's working lunch was planned precisely to exchange views on labour issues and the economy in the context of a free dialogue. Our goals and aspirations are common."
Asked about the Foreign Minister's upcoming trip to New York for a meeting with the UN Secretary General, President Christodoulides said that "this morning there was a preparatory meeting in view of the Foreign Minister's trip to New York. Let me remind you that the negotiator is also there. At the same time, there are also discussions among the members of the Security Council in relation to the discussion that will take place on the occasion of Mr. Stewart's presentation of the facts of the last six months. There is a lot of activity both at the UN level and at the EU level, and next week there is a meeting in Lithuania.
The effort is to synchronise these developments and events, with the UN and the EU, on the sidelines of NATO, because the Cyprus issue will not be discussed in NATO, so that there will be such developments that will lead to a resumption of the talks."
The effort is to synchronise these developments and events, with the UN and the EU, on the sidelines of NATO, because the Cyprus issue will not be discussed in NATO, so that there will be such developments that will lead to a resumption of the talks.
Asked whether the Cyprus problem will be discussed at the Mitsotakis-Erdoğan meeting, the President of the Republic said that "I am sure that it will be discussed at the meeting. A meeting that we hope will lead to positive results. The Cyprus problem is not an issue on the agenda of the discussions in Lithuania. The dominant issue and the one that will prevail is the possibility of Sweden joining NATO. Beyond that, on the sidelines, in the meetings of Mr Erdogan, not only with the Greek Prime Minister, but also with other European leaders, but also with the heads of the EU institutions, yes, the Cyprus problem will be put in the context of this development that exists, of our initiative for a more active role on the part of the EU."
Asked about Turkey's demand that Cyprus should not be mentioned by name on NATO maps, but only by coordinates, and asked what the government is doing about this, the President of the Republic said that "this is Turkey's position. At the same time, both other NATO member states and the NATO Secretariat have proposed other solutions, other suggestions, let's see where and what the outcome will be. But certainly there has been a reaction, not from us, we are not a NATO member state, but with our actions towards friendly NATO member states and of course Greece, both towards the NATO Secretariat and more generally during the discussion of this issue."
Asked to comment on the information about a huge usurpation of Greek Cypriot properties in the occupied territories, the President of the Republic said that "the Government is investigating the issue on the basis of the information that has come to light and soon I will be able to speak more specifically on the basis of the data that I will have before me. I want to be responsible when I speak, especially on such an issue, because it is very serious."
Asked about the issue of divestment and to a comment by a journalist that the parties supporting the Government are distancing themselves from the President's line on the issue, the President said that "I do not think that they disagree with the Government's approach. Let me tell you, apart from that, that I have had telephone contacts with the leaders of both DISY and AKEL and I will also talk to the leaders of the other parties, apart from the three parties that supported my candidacy. We are in constant contact, because I believe that the objective of maintaining the credibility of the Cypriot economy is common, nobody wants us to get into adventures. You understand that the credibility of the Cypriot economy is crucial to our objective of attracting quality investment, to our objective of having a strong economy so that we can also have a social policy, so that we can make the reforms we want in the health sector, in the education sector. So it all depends on the economy and the credibility of our economy. And I believe that no one, but no one, will take any action to serve other goals, other agendas, putting the credibility of our country on a secondary level.
So, I think the goal is common, I am in dialogue with everybody, and I hope that we will soon come to a conclusion on the basis of a concrete program that we have put forward in the House of Representatives, and I hope to have positive developments in the coming week.
Certainly, as the executive, there is no way that we can agree with anything that leads to a universal end to the issue of divestment. We don't think it helps those who are really in trouble either, because yes there are our compatriots who are really in trouble and if we really want to help them it is through the proposals that we have submitted to the House of Representatives."
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