President promises think tank to do “whatever it takes” to restart talks
President Nikos Christodoulides has promised a pro-solution think tank that he will take under consideration their proposals that the Guterres Framework serve as the baseline for moving forward reunification talks, stalled since 2017.
According to the think tank, One Cyprus (www.1cyprus.eu), a delegation of theirs met with the president earlier this week, where they laid out their views on how to overcome the current impasse.
According to a press release on Thursday, at the meeting the group “stressed the need that the president declare clearly to the UN Secretary-General and his envoy that he accepts in its entirety the Guterres Framework as well as all the convergences achieved, including and specifically those relating to political equality and effective participation [in decision-making].”
The think tank said this would be “the necessary first step in order to break the extended deadlock and restart negotiations for a federation-based solution and the reunification of Cyprus based on UN resolutions, in this way averting a catastrophic partition”.
They said the president assured them that “he is doing, and will do, whatever it takes to restart talks within the framework of these observations, with the aim of reuniting Cyprus.”
The think tank appeared to be suggesting that Christodoulides has softened his earlier stance regarding the issue of political equality and effective participation.
The Guterres Framework is a group of proposals orally presented by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Crans Montana summit in June-July 2017.
It covers territory, political equality and effective participation in decision-making, property, equivalent treatment (free movement of goods and persons), and security and guarantees.