Presidents Nicos Anastasiades and Mustafa Akinci agreed today to link both sides’ mobile telephony networks. A confidence-building measure (CBM) agreed in 2015 but never implemented. Other CBMs included exchange of cultural works and mine clearance.
During their three-hour-long meeting, held this morning, the two community leaders discussed Anastasiades’ ideas on decentralisation, said a UN statement issued afterwards.
“The two leaders decided to implement the confidence-building measure regarding mobile phone interoperability through separate agreements of the operators on both sides with a hub based in Europe, in order to facilitate greater interaction between the two communities”, the UN statement said.
The statement also said that Akinci had announced his side’s decision to hand over a number of religious icons and other artefacts stored in Kyrenia castle in the aftermath of the 1974 Turkish military intervention.
The Greek Cypriot side will hand over visual and audio recordings of Turkish Cypriot artists stored by the state broadcaster, CyBC.
The meeting between the two leaders was cordial, the UN stated, with a constructive exchange of views. Anastasiades presented “his ideas on decentralisation and the two leaders discussed in depth the basic principles”.
Additionally, the two leaders made commitments to intensifying the work of the Technical Committees, with the objective of improving the daily lives of all Cypriots.
They announced that the interconnectivity of the two electricity grids, as agreed in 2015, has now been achieved.
“In this regard, they decided to make the temporary electricity supply arrangement permanent and without restriction. They acknowledged that the transfer of electricity will continue on an as-needed basis”, the UN statement said.
The two community leaders last met four months ago on 26 October, 2018, after which, they announced the date for the opening of the Aplıç and Derinya crossing points.
Cyprus Mail, BRT
