By George Psyllides
The leaders of the island’s divided communities have been invited to attend a joint meeting in Switzerland with United Nations Secretary-General Bank Ban Ki-moon, it emerged on Thursday, but the Greek Cypriots have ruled out a wider meet to include the guarantors.
Following a meeting with Turkish Cypriot Leader Mustafa Akinci, President Nicos Anastasiades tweeted that he has received an invitation for a joint meeting in Davos, which he has accepted.
Akinci tweeted a similar statement shortly afterwards.
Earlier on Thursday, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides had ruled out a formal or informal four or five-party meeting on the sidelines of the Economic Forum in Davos.
He was referring to a meeting between the two sides in Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, and Britain.
“A formal or informal four – party and or five-party meeting in Davos is out of the question,” Christodoulides told the Cyprus News Agency.
The forum will take place between 20-23 of January.
Anastasiades was criticised for agreeing to the joint meeting even before it was made official.
EDEK and DIKO suggested that such a meeting would essentially mean upgrading Akinci and the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state.
Anastasiades sought to put things into perspective as regards the Davos forum, saying it was not a gathering of heads of state.
“It is a gathering that aims to determine the prospects of the global economy,” he said. “Its just that heads of state also participate. Consequently, what some think will happen in Davos, that it is a participation of the President of the Republic with the Turkish Cypriot leader, create the wrong picture, which has nothing to do with reality.”
The two leaders met on Thursday morning as part of the latest round of reunification talks.
Anastasiades said they covered all the issues and exchanged views on the basic principles that must govern the substantive aspects. The two leaders also reviewed the progress so far.
“Where the problems are, where we are close, where we still have ground to cover,” he said. “It was a very useful meeting.”
Anastasiades and Akinci covered territory – the basic principles that should govern territorial readjustments – outstanding issues on property, as well as governance, and the power to sign international deals where the principle of one international identity must be respected.
In general, Anastasiades said, they went through all the discussions they had so far, documented the agreements and disagreements so that in the next months they will focus on the most critical issues.
Anastasiades said there was progress and difficulties, but there was also determination from the two leaders to find ways to fulfil the two sides’ expectations.
The president said he will be briefing the national council soon on the goings-on to put an end to the moaning that the people and the political leaders were kept in the dark.
“I will do it to stop all this talks, which creates the wrong picture,” he said.
During their meeting, the two sides exchanged the respective lists of members of the technical committee on education, established in November to review existing research and good practices in education in Cyprus and abroad, and undertake new research on how education can contribute to conflict transformation, peace and reconciliation.
The two sides appointed 11 members each.
