Remarks to the media by the President of
Cyprus,
the President of Egypt, and the Prime Minister of Greece, in
Athens
The Greece-Cyprus-Egypt Tripartite Meeting took place,
today, in Athens, with the participation of the President of the Republic of
Cyprus Mr. Nicos Anastasiades, the President of Egypt Mr. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi
and the Prime Minister of Greece Mr Alexis Tsipras.
After the meeting, prior to which there were bilateral meetings
between the leaders and bilateral consultations between the delegations of the
three countries, President Anastasiades, President Sisi and Prime Minister
Tsipras made remarks to the media.
In his remarks, Mr. Tsipras said, in part, that “in this
framework our tripartite cooperation is a pillar of peace and stability, and it
sends a message of peace and stability to the broader region. With this
approach, we reviewed the latest developments on all the major international
issues in the region and more broadly at the international level.
In this framework, we stressed how important it is to
find a just and viable solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the UN
decisions; important both for the people of Cyprus and the stability and
security in the region.”
He further stated that “we agreed that from now on our
meetings will not be characterized only by the theoretical confirmation of our
common will and cooperation, but will be capped with the implementation of all
that has been agreed” and added that the next tripartite meeting will take place
in Cairo.
On his part, President Sisi, speaking through an interpreter, said,
among other things, that the tripartite meeting “demonstrates the persistence of
all of us to continue on our course to secure progress and development, and
symbolizes our steadfast commitment for joint cooperation on the basis of a
common vision, in order to safeguard security and stability in the
region.”
Referring to the Cyprus problem, President Sisi said
that in the course of the tripartite meeting, Egypt expressed its support “for
the efforts to resolve the problem with the objective to reunite the island on
the basis of the UN resolutions.”
In his remarks, President Anastasiades said that “a
common ascertainment of all three countries is that significant progress has
been made until today with regard to our cooperation in the framework of the
tripartite mechanism.
We, both Cyprus and Greece, affirmed that we will
continue to support the relations between the EU and Egypt, particularly on
issues that promote peace and stability in our region, such as the fight against
terrorism, security, coping with crises and migration flows.”
The President thanked President Sisi and Prime Minister
Tsipras for their support in the efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus
problem on the basis of the UN resolutions, adding that “the European acquis
, human rights, the withdrawal of the occupation forces and the termination
of the anachronistic system of guarantees, must be basic ingredients of the
solution.”
With regard to the Cyprus problem, he also thanked
President Sisi who created a different atmosphere and a different understanding
within the Islamic Conference, “something that is evident also from the
resolutions of the Conference which are closer to those of the United
Nations.”
President Anastasiades also added that “we also
underlined our common understanding that the discovery of significant
hydrocarbon deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean - including the recent
discovery of the Zohr deposit in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Egypt can and
must serve as a catalyst for broader cooperation at a regional level,
contributing in this way to the prosperity and stability of the countries of our
region.”
President Anastasiades stated that “we believe that
through what we are building we can succeed” and noted that the objective is not
to exclude anybody and that the cooperation is not directed against anybody. To
the contrary, he said, our energy sources can satisfy the needs of the three
parties and others of our neighbors.
He added that “furthermore, as Mediterranean countries, we believe,
in particular, in the prospect of joint exploitation of the marine sector. In
this framework, following a proposal by Cyprus, we examined the prospect for the
creation of a joint economic committee on issues of ‘Blue Economy’ that will be
concerned with, among other issues, sea transport, research, technology and
innovation , sea and coastal tourism, education and marine
environment.”
