Raab calls for flexibility and compromise in Cyprob talks

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for flexibility ahead of a fresh bid by the United Nations to resume efforts towards resolving the Cyprus Problem.

In a Twitter post following his meeting with President Nicos Anastasiades in Nicosia on Thursday, Raab said “the UK is committed to supporting a just and lasting solution to the division of Cyprus,” and said he reiterated to Anastasiades that the “UK support and urge an open and flexible approach to Cyprus Settlement talks.”

The UK is committed to supporting a just and lasting solution to the division of Cyprus. I met the Republic of Cyprus President @AnastasiadesCY today to reiterate UK support and urge an open and flexible approach to #Cyprus Settlement talks. pic.twitter.com/tnQMpn3QSt

— Dominic Raab (@DominicRaab) February 4, 2021

Raab was to hold a string of meetings on Thursday with President Anastasiades, Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides, the Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar, and the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative Elizabeth Spehar.

Raab represents one of three guarantor countries under a convoluted treaty which granted Cyprus independence in 1960. He and the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey, along with the two Cyprus communities, are expected to attend a three-day summit the United Nations will call in early March on the future of Cypriot reunification talks.

Following his meeting with Christodoulides, Raab said that a renewed failure to resolve the Cyprus Problem would be of benefit to no one, and called on all sides to come to the informal five-party summit expected to take place next month prepared to compromise so that a solution can be secured.

On his part, Christodoulides said he told his UK counterpart that the Republic hopes to see formal negotiations resume quickly from the point at which they left off in 2017, when the last formal negotiations held in Crans Montana collapsed.

“I reiterated our readiness to resume negotiations in the framework set out by the UN Secretary General, the convergences reached, and the Joint Declaration of February 2014,” Christodoulides said, expressing hope that the same level of commitment will be shown by other parties.

Christodoulides said he and Raab agreed on the importance of all sides recognising the need to avoid provocations which may derail current efforts.

"Ahead of informal UN talks on Cyprus, today I spoke to Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and reinforced the need for all sides to be flexible," Raab wrote on his official Twitter account late Wednesday.