Our side seeks to have the expanded meetings as announced by the Secretary-General as soon as possible with appropriate preparation both internally and from the side of the United Nations, said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Konstantinos Kombos.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the first Cyprus-US strategic dialogue at the Presidential, Mr. Kombos noted that our position on the issue of the enlarged and their form has been formulated with absolute clarity.
He reminded that yesterday the President of the Republic Nikos Christodoulidis addressed the Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres thanking him on the one hand for the initiative of convening the dinner and on the other hand asking him to convene the two meetings he announced as soon as possible.
"Therefore from our side we ask that it be this, something that will happen as soon as possible and at the same time with the proper preparation, both internally and at the level of the United Nations Organization, so that it can lead to some positive results. I don't currently have clarity on when that will happen. Regarding your question whether it should be done or whether it can be done after or before the US elections, our view is that we want it to be done as soon as possible," he said.
Answering another question about the format of the meetings, the Minister of Foreign Affairs said that the President of the Republic submitted a series of suggestions and proposals at the dinner precisely wanting to show that our side has not only the good mood that it expresses publicly, but also on the table.
"The issue of separate tables is something that was submitted by the President of the Republic and not by the General Secretary. The Secretary-General has accepted the usefulness of this approach and it is now a question of the Secretary-General himself how to evaluate," he said.
He continued by saying that it is good to clarify that this concerns and will concern when someone arrives at the actual negotiation, that is, it will be the next step.
We, Mr. Kombos clarified, had to show that we are thinking not only about the dinner and the next step, which will be the discussion about barricades or the expanded one, but also below, the essence.
"So it is an idea of a methodological nature if you like, which was submitted by us, it is a matter of evaluation by the Secretary General. I hope we get to the point where such matters must be clarified. We will have already submitted a position in this regard, an approach to facilitate the Secretary General in the work he undertook and with the most active involvement on the issue, as it is taking shape, especially after some years when he did not have the the same involvement of the Secretary General", he said.