President: If invited to a meeting with Tatar, “of course I will accept it”

President Nikos Chsitodoulides said that if he is asked to join a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, “of course, I will accept it”.

He was responding to journalists in Greece, following a meeting with the governor of the region of Central Macedonia, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, who asked whether he had any plans to meet with Tatar.

The president said he will be meeting with the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, on 16 March and “if there is any invitation for such a meeting, of course, I will accept it”.

He also stressed that progress in Greco-Turkish relations can benefit the Cyprus issue, though on the other hand, "there cannot be full normalisation of the Greco-Turkish relations without a solution to the Cyprus problem".

Asked whether there was any possibility of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Christodoulides said he wished this could be arranged, adding that he is always ready for such a meeting. He also noted that the coordination and cooperation with the Greek government is excellent and that they are in constant consultation with the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Moreover, he thanked the Greek Government, the Greek Prime Minister and the Greek people for their long-standing support.

He said that coordination and cooperation with the Greek government takes place on a daily basis, pointing out that "it was within the framework of our own initiatives and the support we had from the Greek government that we had the appointment of the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary General".

He recalled that he has already met twice with Holguín and that they have another scheduled meeting. "I hope the conditions will be created, our sole goal is the resumption of the talks from where they were interrupted in Crans-Montana and we hope to reach this goal," he noted.