President Akinci meets with President Anastasiades on Wednesday morning in a critical meeting in the Cyprus negotiations. Today’s meeting will conclude the round of intensive negotiations the two community leaders have held over the past month.
They will be trying to find agreement on a number of problematic issues.
According to South Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides, there will be no joint statement issued, only a press release. Opposition hard liners have been opposed to a joint statement.
“We see announcements almost daily referring to a joint communiqué and frankly I cannot understand what is behind it apart from causing confusion for something that is perfectly clear,” Christodoulides said.
“The press release itself is almost ready and does not concern the substance of the talks…the meeting is for substantive discussion on the chapters of the Cyprus problem and will not be confined to the issue of the press release,” he added.
Christodoulides also said Wednesday’s final meeting is important because it will discuss aspects of the Cyprus problem on which there are currently disagreements, or differences in approach.
UN Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide is expected to read the press release at the end of Wednesday`s meeting, which is expected to conclude before 2pm local time.
Both leaders are scheduled to meet the UN Secretary-General in New York on September 26, just after the Security Council Assembly comes to an end.
Before Wednesday’s meeting, Anastasiades and Akinci will be presented with a book on the work of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), in the presence of all three committee members.
Cyprus Weekly
