I. KASOULIDES: It is a great pleasure to be in Athens again. Our talks today with Foreign Minister Kotzias were a working meeting, because together we worked on the ideas that will have to be submitted in the negotiations on the issue of Security. We are talking about the need for a system that will make all Cypriots – Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots – feel equally secure. Certainly, in such a system there is no room for treaties of guarantee or the presence of Turkish troops. We had a productive meeting. We based our work on a document prepared by Mr. Kotzias himself a short time ago, we developed various working hypotheses, and I think we are now ready to be able to promote these positions. At the same time, we looked at the developments in Turkey. These developments and their repercussions are of direct interest to both Cyprus and Greece. And, finally, we exchanged some views on our region and our neighbours in the context of the trilateral cooperation configurations we have with various countries.
N. KOTZIAS: It is a great pleasure today to be hosting the Cypriot Delegation, headed by my respected and good friend Mr. Kasoulides, so that we can discuss an issue which is also a personal concern of mine: the prospects and fortunes of the Cyprus issue. We had the opportunity to express, once again, our support in the negotiations for the finding of a just solution to the Cyprus issue, towards which I think we have taken serious steps. We had the opportunity to talk about how this issue will be productive and democratically correct; that is, will include the elimination of the anachronistic system of guarantees and the removal of Turkish occupation forces.
Naturally, we discussed the changes that have come to the region of late, particularly following the developments with the failed coup attempt in Turkey. Finally, as the Minister said, we talked about our cooperation in the region, the trilateral configurations, as well as the International Rhodes Conference, on 8-9 September, which will be attended by seven European and seven Arab countries, with the aim of creating a larger stability and security structure in the Eastern Mediterranean. Again, I thank Mr. Kasoulides for accepting my invitation, I thank him very, very much for the creative discussions we have always had, that we have and, I hope, we will also have in the future.
July 22, 2016