THE government will wait to see what the state of play is before deciding whether to resume reunification talks, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said on Thursday.
Christodoulides was commenting on a UN announcement that the Secretary General’s Special Adviser for Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, will return to the island on Monday, “to follow up on the encouraging indications received during his last trip to the island regarding a possible resumption of the negotiations.”
The spokesman said the government wanted to be briefed by Eide before making any decision regarding the resumption of talks, suspended in October last year after Turkey sent a research vessel into the island’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
President Nicos Anastasiades pulled out of the talks when Ankara issued a navigational telex, or NAVTEX, reserving large areas for surveys and Barbaros violated the island’s EEZ.
Repeated calls for the withdrawal of Barbaros went unheeded by Ankara, which extended the NAVTEX until April 6.
Christodoulides said the fact that Eide was coming to Cyprus on the day the NAVTEX expired showed the real reason for the suspension of the talks.
“We must wait and see how the matter develops, what the actions of the Turkish government would be,” Christodoulides said.
He said the government will wait until it was briefed by the UN official before it took any further steps.
“We desire for a dialogue to start, it is our country, which is under occupation,” Christodoulides said, stressing that the talks must create real prospects for a positive conclusion.
He also said that Turkey’s demand that Cyprus terminates its energy plans so that Ankara stops its actions within Cyprus’ EEZ, have not been satisfied.
There has not been any change in the government’s planning, he said, as attested by recent developments.
The spokesman said the pace of the talks would depend entirely on the political will and the positions submitted at the negotiating table.
Asked to comment on the elections in the Turkish occupied areas later this month, Christodoulides said that the government was monitoring developments in this important procedure and would talk to anyone chosen by “our Turkish Cypriot compatriots.”
“It is a matter that concerns the Turkish Cypriots exclusively and we will not have any involvement,” he said.
