Papandreou to visit next week

GREECE’S Foreign Minister George Papandreou will arrive in Cyprus next week for a series of meetings with the government and the island’s political leadership, it was confirmed yesterday.

During his visit, Papandreou will review the outcome of the first round of UN-led talks in New York in December, and the conclusions of the EU’s Helsinki summit.

Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Panayiotis Beglitis said discussions would also focus on the strategy to be followed at the second round of proximity talks to be held in Geneva at the end of the month.

Beglitis said President Clerides and Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides would receive Papandreou, who arrives on January 11 for a two-day visit. He will also meet party leaders.

This will be Papandreou’s second recent visit to the island. He paid a short visit in November before the start of the proximity talks and the EU summit.

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.