Appropriate and sustainable economic development is needed for future generations to be able to live in peace and prosperity, President Mustafa Akinci has said.
President Akinci, as a guest of the International Cooperation Platform, addressed the 9th Bosphorus Summit, which had as its main theme “Sustaining Peace and Development for All”.
Policies that support international trade of goods and services and provide sustainability should replace populist protectionist policies, Akinci said. “People, nations, and countries want to live prosperously but half of the world population has no chance for it”, Akinci emphasised.
He added: “There are war conditions in over 40 regions of the world, the number of people which are affected by hot conflicts doubled in the last 10 years”. Akinci noted: “Our region in particular, is in need of stability, an understanding of broad cooperation and a need for peace”.
With regard to the recent discovery of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean, Akinci said, “Only a vision that anticipates the joint evaluation of the natural resources will lead to profit from that discovery”.
He added that if there is joint economic cooperation between the two Cypriot communities, where no one is excluded from the economic partnership, this could be the key to peace in the region.
At this moment, the two peoples on the island are faced with an historic responsibility, Akinci said. They are not only responsible for the future generations but for the whole region and the world as well. “These natural resources belong to the two peoples on the island and must be used for the prosperity of the two peoples” said Akinci said. He called on Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades to abandon his stance on this issue.
President Akinci went on to say: “He must give up on his unilateral efforts as these resources belong to both peoples and do not only belong to him”, and added that joint wealth should be managed with wisdom and shared interests.
BRT, en.haberler.com
