The developments in Syria and what they may signal for the region will be high on the agenda of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's contacts in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Cyprus.
Other topics on the agenda of the talks between the President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides and the British Prime Minister on Tuesday, in Nicosia, are expected to be the Cyprus issue, the Ukrainian issue, bilateral relations, immigration and UK-EU relations.
It is recalled that the Cypriot Government had received laudatory comments from Mr. Starmer during the October Downing Street meeting on initiatives and response to the consequences of conflicts in the Middle East, such as the Amalthia and Hestia plans.
The British side highlights the opportunity for further talks on deepening bilateral cooperation in defense and security, education, research and culture, trade and investment, energy.
As reported by a diplomatic source in London, Starmer's visit to Cyprus, the first official for bilateral contacts by a Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 1971, proves how important the role that Cyprus has claimed and assumed in the region is now considered, in a period of intense instability .
The Cyprus issue will also be on the agenda of the talks between the two leaders and soon after among the enlarged delegations. British officials and Mr. Stormers have declared that the U. The Kingdom is willing and ready to play its role as a guarantor and respond to the call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for an expanded meeting with the guarantor powers.
London reaffirms at every opportunity the commitment to support the efforts of Antonio Guterres to restart the talks and to seek a solution within the existing parameters of the UN, on the basis of a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation with political equality.
The position was repeated during last week's Downing Street meeting between Starmer and Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Other issues of particular concern to the British Government and which have been placed on the agenda of the trip to Cyprus are immigration, the prospect of war in Ukraine and the attempt to re-approach with the EU, with London asking its closest European allies, such as Cyprus and Greece, to support this effort.
Before leaving for London, Keir Starmer will also meet with British soldiers who will be serving at British bases over Christmas and who are serving in a period of prolonged readiness due to the ongoing developments and upheavals in the Middle East.
The emphasis of the trip of Mr. Starmer, which was planned before the dramatic fall of Bashar al-Assad, mainly concerned trade ties and investments in the Persian Gulf countries, but also security cooperation in the Middle East and Southeast Mediterranean.
Arriving in Abu Dhabi, Mr. Starmer was asked about the developments in Damascus and commented that "it is very good for the Syrian people that Assad and his barbaric regime have gone", adding that it must now be ensured that "the rejection of terrorism and violence".
And he repeated the official statement of Downing Street a little earlier that emphasized the need for a political solution in Syria to restore peace and stability. The statement described the developments in Syria as "unprecedented" and said Britain was monitoring the situation closely and talking to its allies in the region.
In the first ever meeting on Monday, with the President of the UAE Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Mr. Starmer will discuss beyond regional developments and how bilateral trade, already estimated at £23bn a year, can grow.
A similar discussion will be held later in Saudi Arabia with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The volume of bilateral trade is estimated at at least 17 billion pounds per year.
Downing Street has already announced collaborations between the two countries in the field of green energy and technology. A standout is the agreement to start the first commercial production of carbon fiber with graphene, a collaboration between a research center in Manchester and the giant NEOM manufacturing project in Saudi Arabia.
The scheme will create over a thousand jobs in NW England and raise hundreds of millions of pounds in investment.
Source: KYPE
