The historic Conference on Cyprus is underway, where the crucial security and guarantees issues will be exclusively discussed between President Nicos Anastasiades, Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci and the island’s three guarantor powers (Greece, Turkey, and the UK).
The Foreign Ministers of the three Guarantor Powers, Turkey’s Mevlut Cavusoglu, Greece’s Nikos Kotzias, and the UK’s Boris Johnson have all arrived, for the first meeting of the three with Cypriot leaders.
The EU delegation has also arrived at the historic talks on the security and guarantees issue, with the heads of the delegation being EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker and EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini.
Anastasiades and Akinci are to meet from 11:30am to 11:50am (Cyprus Time) with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres prior to the Conference beginning.
At 12pm (Cyprus Time) an opening ceremony will be held for the Conference, where the UN and parties present will make statements. Bilateral meetings between the Conference participants will follow the opening ceremony.
The Conference is officially expected to begin at 12:15 (Cyprus Time) and will run until 1pm, before reconvening at 7pm and continuing until 9pm (Cyprus Time).
Guterres, who will chair the Conference, is also expected to address the press alongside Anastasiades and Akinci at 3:45pm (Cyprus Time).
SOLUTION WITHIN REACH
EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker announced he’ll be attending the Conference, with EU Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini having already arrived.
The three guarantor powers will be represented at the Conference by their Foreign Ministers, with higher representation to follow should a solution be within reach.
Yesterday, UN Special Adviser on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, said that the EU would be called into the meetings being held between Anastasiades and Akinci and the guarantor powers as needed.
Eide stated that there was no timeframe for when the discussion on the security and guarantees issue would close.
History was made yesterday, when the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot sides submitted their territorial adjustment maps for the very first time, with three cartographers (one from each side and one from the UN) behind closed doors.
Cyprus Government Spokesperson Nikos Christodoulides added, yesterday, that the Conference would begin today as planned, despite some apprehension from the Greek Cypriot side on the territorial adjustment map submitted by the Turkish Cypriot side.
BACKGROUND
Anastasiades and Akinci decided last December to resume their Swiss-based talks on January 9, 2017.
On January 11, they are expected to present their respective maps on the territorial chapter.
On January 12, the Conference on Cyprus will be convened with guarantor powers (Greece, the UK, Turkey) and other relevant parties.
Anastasiades and Akinci have been engaged in UN-led talks since May 2015 aiming to reunify the island under a federal roof, following Turkey’s 1974 invasion and illegal occupation on the island.
SigmaLive English will be following events in Geneva as they unfold.
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