The President of the Republic, Mr. Nikos Christodoulidis, mentioned today the possibility of him visiting Lebanon again together with the President of the European Commission, regarding immigration.
In his statements coming to the 14th Economic Conference of Nicosia, and invited to comment on the statements of the Turkish Cypriot leader Mr. Ersin Tatar, the President of the Republic said that "I do not have to comment on anything Mr. Tatar mentions.
We are not working through public statements, we are working with the United Nations, we are working so that there are prospects for mobility in the Cyprus issue towards the resumption of talks.
Things are not easy, but the effort continues on a daily basis. I would not at this time want to make public anything of all that we are doing in the direction of resuming the talks."
Asked if he has information about the ideas that the UN Secretary-General was going to present, the President of the Republic said that "I have information, of course I have information, the Secretary-General himself conveyed to me, I also have information about what was disclosed in the discussion, but I don't think it's something I should make public. I am focusing on the bottom line and the bottom line is how to get the talks restarted."
Asked if this is what was said between the President and the UN Secretary-General, President Christodoulidis said that "the Secretary-General does not say differently depending on the interlocutor. They were specific proposals, specific discussion. But I don't think it's appropriate to make anything public. We focus on the bottom line."
Asked to report on the results of his contacts in Lebanon, the President of the Republic said that "we agreed on some things yesterday during my contacts, especially with the Prime Minister of the country, following what I discussed with the President of the Commission. We are in contact, I informed you after my return from Lebanon about the results of my discussions and I do not rule out soon visiting Lebanon again together with the President of the Commission. We agreed on some things. What is important is the implementation of everything we agreed on."
In response to a question about the "Amalthia" project, the President of the Republic said that "preliminaries are progressing, yesterday we had a visit here from the relevant Minister of the UAE, so that everything that was agreed upon during the meeting of senior officials that took place in Cyprus, with the participation of more than 40 countries.
It will be a wishful thinking that there will be a truce, but even if there is no truce the needs for humanitarian aid are there and I believe that the key is the completion of the work done by the US. I expect these works to be completed in the next few days, which will give new impetus to the initiative of the Republic of Cyprus, as well as to the mission of humanitarian aid".
Asked to comment on AKEL's criticism of the appointment of the new Governor of the Central Bank, the President of the Republic said that "I did not expect AKEL to make such a comment. It was during the AKEL administration that we had three Ministers of Finance, bankers. So, before we go out and make statements, it's good to be a little careful."
