Newsroom
President Nikos Christodoulides on Thursday urged the United Kingdom to fully embrace its responsibilities as a guarantor power in support of renewed efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.
Meeting with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy at the Presidential Palace, Christodoulides said Cyprus is committed to strengthening bilateral ties and looks to London to help ensure that upcoming discussions at the United Nations produce meaningful results.
“With these developments in mind, we rely on you… to ensure that substantial discussions take place with the aim of achieving meaningful results,” Christodoulides said, referring to the planned U.N. conference on Cyprus. He emphasized that negotiations must remain rooted in U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The president also pointed to Cyprus’s upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union as a chance to improve EU–UK cooperation. “We must work jointly; the challenges we face are shared,” he said, noting Cyprus’s respect for the UK’s Brexit decision despite previous disappointment.
Lammy welcomed the opportunity to visit Cyprus, calling current UK–Cyprus ties the strongest they have been in years. “These are times of significant geopolitical challenges… We greatly value our close cooperation,” he said, adding that Prime Minister Keir Starmer sees Cyprus as a key strategic partner.
“As a guarantor power, we support the U.N. Secretary-General in the process and hope to reach a solution,” Lammy said. “We will do everything we can to continue working with you to make this happen.”
