The meeting with the British Prime
Minister Mr. David Cameron took place in a most friendly climate said today the
President of the Republic of Cyprus Mr. Nicos Anastasiades, who is paying a
visit in London.
In his remarks to reporters in the
afternoon following the meeting which took place at 10 Downing Street, in the
presence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ioannis Kasoulides, the
Minister of Energy Mr. Yiorgos Lakkotrypis, the Government Spokesman Mr.
Christos Stylianides and government officials, the President of the Republic
said that:
“I want to express my special satisfaction
for my historically significant, I could say, visit in London and my meeting
with the British Prime Minister.
During our meeting we discussed a broad
range of issues. I had the opportunity to brief the Prime Minister
on the latest developments on the Cyprus problem, but also the efforts that are
making in order to reach a joint agreement, so that we would be allowed to
enter into a substantive dialogue, which will offer the prospect and the hope
to finally lead to the liberation and the reunification of our homeland for the
good of all the Cypriots.
I repeated the necessity for the adoption
of bold confidence-building measures, which will create a different atmosphere,
but also a momentum in the dialogue and that will benefit the people of Cyprus
in their entirety, the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots.
In the joint communique, which we have
issued, reference is made to the benefits both for Cyprus as well as more
broadly for the region from the solution of the Cyprus problem, whereas, in the
same communique, a clear reference is made for the need to achieve a solution
on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality, as it
is described in the relevant resolutions of the Security Council of the UN, but
also at the same time, the new order of things is stressed in the joint
communique, for the federal Cyprus Republic to have one and single sovereignty,
one and single international personality, one and single citizenship. And this
is very important, on the part of the British Government to support what we too
propose.”
I had the opportunity to brief the British
Prime Minister about the situation of the Cyprus economy and our efforts to
restart it, without omitting to thank him for the substantial contribution of
the United Kingdom in this effort and more specifically on issues concerning
the banking sector, the broader public sector, as well as the Local
Self-Administration, in order to modernize the Cypriot state.
The talks expanded also to the EU issues
where we have ascertained to have common concerns about the future of Europe,
taking into special consideration the current economic situation in our effort
to make Europe more competitive, to address in a substantive way the program
for youth unemployment and more generally how to address the current deadlocks.
At the same time, the identity of views on
important issues of common interest, such as the problems of our region, the
Middle East I mean, is of course described extensively in the joint communique.
I chose to leave for last to mention to
you the historic, in my view, Agreement reached between the Governments of the
Republic of Cyprus and the United Kingdom, which concerns the regulation of the
development of the areas within the limits of the British Bases.
More specifically, the Agreement provides
also the availability for town-planning development, of about 200 square
kilometers of land which covers the entire private property that lies within
the British Bases.
This Agreement affects more than 15 communities
and it opens new prospects on the issues of development and investment.
The meeting with the British Prime
Minister took place in a warm and most friendly climate and the agreement is to
continue to work so that the traditional and historic relations that we
maintain will deepen even further.”
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