U.N. SPECIAL Adviser Alexander Downer broke from the standard ‘cautious optimism’ of UN officials to praise the pace and “intensity” of the talks process yesterday.
Speaking after an afternoon meeting with President Demetris Christofias following a morning meeting between the two leaders, Downer highlighted the accelerated pace of the talks since the tripartite meeting in New York last month.
The Australian diplomat expressed the view to Christofias that since November 18, when the two leaders met UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York, the talks have been moving ahead “more quickly and more effectively”.
“We’ve been pleased with that and we will have to see how it goes from now on,” he said.
He added: “I’ m happy to say that these talks have been going better, the two sides have been engaging better and we are pleased about that.”
Earlier in the day, following the meeting between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, Downer said there was “quite an intense activity of meetings at both the representatives’ level and at the leaders’ level”.
He announced that “further progress was achieved on the issue of the economy” while the two leaders also exchanged views on governance and power sharing.
In an almost orchestrated effort to adhere to Ban’s demand for more, or any, positive statements on the talks, both Christofias and Eroglu confirmed later that progress had actually been made on the economy chapter.
Christofias said the Greek Cypriot side also submitted its positions and proposals on the key issues of governance and power sharing and awaited a response from the Turkish Cypriot side, to be discussed at their next meeting.
Meanwhile, Eroglu announced that the next tripartite meeting with the UNSG will be on January 26.
This was confirmed by Downer who when asked said whether the two leaders could meet the UNSG’s expectations by then, replied affirmatively.
“They can meet the expectations, and I think it has to be said that since the successful meeting in New York on the 18th of November the leaders have been making a big effort to, one, make sure that work is done well, and that convergences can be achieved on the core issues between now and the 26th of January, which is when the meeting is to take place in Geneva,” he said.
Downer refused to get into the details of what’s been agreed upon or not.
“It’s important we keep the big picture in mind of what we are trying to achieve here and the UN wants to see these two leaders… achieve something that everyone’s failed to achieve before and that is bizonal bicommunal federation with political equality, single sovereignty and we want to see that happen,” he said.
