The President of the Republic Mr. Nikos Christodoulides received today in Athens, where he is on an official visit, the President of SYRIZA Mr. Alexis Tsipras.
During the meeting, the President of the Republic expressed once again his and the Cypriot people's condolences for the unjust loss of dozens of people in the train accident in Tempi, noting that Cyprus also counts victims.
He added that the political leadership of each country should, through its actions, not allow such tragic events to happen again.
He also said that his visit to Greece, apart from being symbolic, is also of substantial importance, while referring to the Cyprus problem, President Christodoulides said that "we have no time to lose in the effort to break the deadlock and restart the talks".
He added that our side is seeking a leading engagement by the EU in the efforts to resolve the Cyprus problem, underlining that the EU has all those incentives so that we can lead to a situation that is beneficial for all parties concerned.
He noted that the EU's involvement, not only at the Crans Montana conference but also at the level of technocrats, had been a catalyst for reaching convergences that had not been achieved in the past.
He added that "I am aiming until the conclusion of the elections in Turkey to do all the groundwork, especially to Europe, to the member states, to the UN - because we always talk about within the UN framework, we cannot discuss anything that goes beyond the UN framework - in order to create the conditions for the resumption of the talks.
The situation as it stands cannot be the solution to the Cyprus problem. Reunification is our priority and we will work in this direction, in coordination with the Greek Government, but also with the Greek political parties."
For his part, the President of SYRIZA said, among other things, that "I welcome your statement about resuming negotiations from where they left off in Crans Montana", adding that the SYRIZA Government had cooperated with the then Government of Cyprus and had managed to have the EU be part of this conference with positive results.
He also referred to the tragic accident in Tempi, thanking the Republic of Cyprus for its support, and stressing the obligation of everyone to do their utmost to bring out the truth about the causes of the tragic incident.
(PM/AF/SX)
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