Draft transcript of the statements by
the UNSG’s Special Adviser on Cyprus
after his meeting with the President of the
Republic
We had a very good leaders’ meeting
yesterday and I talked to Mr Anastasiades about how we organize the time ahead.
Because we said in our statement yesterday that crucial months are coming, that
we recognize progress been made, we also recognize hard work remaining, so the
big question now is how we optimize our time in the coming months, which means
which issues we deal with and with which sequence and how do we connect all the
dots.
The conversation we are having now
before the meetings coming up in New York is what the overall picture of affairs
is. So we are not going to talk about specific details on inside chapters,
although they are of course present in the negotiations, it is the big picture,
because after all the solution is a big picture solution. It has many details
and these details matter and they are serious, important issues but there is
only a solution if we connect the dots and now we are in the connecting the dots
phase, which is exactly where I think we should be in September.
So, I am happy with the state of
affairs and I also reiterate, as the leaders correctly said both in their
statement and individually, that there is a lot of work and there is little time
and we have to get that work done. A particular focus right now is on building
economic support for a settlement.
As you know, over the summer, almost
the whole EU leadership has been here, we have Victoria Nuland, Undersecretary
of State for the US, I am going to have a lot of meetings over the next weeks in
New York, using the opportunity of the whole world coming together, building
willingness to help build that fund relatively quickly, because the more we
succeed on that front I think some of the crucial issues will be easier to
solve.
Q: Why are the next months so
crucial?
A: Because these processes have a
dynamic of their own. Four months is in one sense very short, because we have
many decades of not solving the Cyprus problem, but it is also very intense and
these momentums come and they might go, so we really want to use it while we
still have it. And I can assure you that my sense after the meeting yesterday is
that it is still there and we want to use it. This is also the leaders' sense,
so it is kind of an internal dynamic.
But is also a reflection of the fact
that the stars are well aligned now, they may not be well aligned all the time.
And again both for the internal quality of the process, but also for the
surrounding circumstances, I think it would be good to use this opportunity when
we have it.
Q: Mr Akinci said yesterday that there
is to have a solution before next May. Is this the UN view also?
A: There is no timeline. It is actually
quite important to underline that there is no, we haven't even sought to have a
timeline, because a timeline can be suffocating, because then the dates take
dominance over substance. But I am very happy to hear the leaders say repeatedly
that there is no time to lose. So, when I hear the leaders say there is no time
to lose and when I think there is no time to lose, I think we are on a good
track and we don’t have to declare dates.
Q: Is there a decision on how talks
will be intensified or how often the leaders will be meeting?
A: There is a decision that they will
be intensified and they will be intensified after October. There are just
practical reasons why we would like to intensify them from mid-October but
because of travel plans and so on we found out that it is from early November. I
am talking about the leaders, because if the negotiators were more intense they
would have to meet at night. Because they are meeting all the time. The leaders
want to take more direct charge and that means significantly more frequent
meetings from November on. And we will fill in the dates when they are there,
but it means hands on, because at a certain stage they will have to basically
settle some of the open issues. We have open issues where I think our shared
sense is that they will be solved, but they will be solved in a context and we
have to create that context.
Q: Will the elections in Turkey affect
in any way the process?
A: Our primary focus is to deal with
this between the two sides in Cyprus. Of course we are aware of the electoral
conundrums in several neighboring states, but the main issue is to get as much
done as possible, which is under the control of the two leaders meeting in the
negotiations.
Q: Should we expect to see any bridging
proposals from the UN?
A: The leaders are doing a very good
job in leading the process.
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15 September, 2015
