Cyprus Talks: Akinci and Anastasiades to meet later in October

Greek Cypriot President, Nicos Anastasiades has announced he will hold an informal meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci later in the month.

The announcement came on Friday after his meeting at the Presidential Palace with the UN Secretary-General’s envoy in Cyprus Elizabeth Spehar.

The meeting will be without an agenda, he said, as neither him or Akinci want to give the impression that the dialogue is being relaunched “without proper preparation or knowing which issues to discuss”.

We will simply – as leaders of the two communities – exchange thoughts, concerns on our prospect, our future and how we can find the way so that the sought-after solution is functional, viable and provides prospects to the entire Cypriot people, Anastasiades said.

He said that Spehar conveyed to him that Akinci is eyeing positively his proposal for a meeting, which will be arranged by the UN within the coming days.

Anastasiades had said last week that he had asked Akinci for a casual meeting when the latter had called him on his birthday but that Akinci turned down the invitation.

The reply was that he did not want to give the impression that the talks were being relaunched, Anastasiades had said.

The two leaders met last April at an informal dinner hosted by Spehar, at the Chief of Mission’s residence in the buffer zone. It was their first meeting since the collapse of the talks in Switzerland in July 2017.

CM