Talat and Vassiliou meet

NEGOTIATION and a solution based on UN decisions were the key to the Cyprus problem, said leaders of two Cypriot parties, meeting yesterday in Nicosia. A settlement would have to take into account UN ideas on crucial aspects of the problem.

United Democrat leader George Vassiliou and Republican Turkish Party leader Mehmet Ali Talat also agreed that Cyprus should look forward to its accession to the European Union. They diverged, however, on the timing of such accession.

Talat felt EU membership should follow a political solution for the island and supported Turkish Cypriot participation in the process. He hoped the international community would find a way of accommodating the Turkish Cypriot side.

Vassiliou responded saying accession talks would go ahead, calling on Turkish Cypriots to recognise that the EU’s interlocutor in the talks would be the Republic of Cyprus.

“I do not expect an agreement on these matters at present, but we agree on the goals we are aiming at,” said Vassiliou.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.