Written statement of Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias following his meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Geneva, 24 February 2020)

Today, I had the pleasure of meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on the occasion of my participation in tomorrow’s proceedings of the Human Rights Council and the Conference on Disarmament.

We discussed issues that will be raised in these two forums tomorrow, as well as international issues of more special interest to us.

I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Guterres about the effort towards a political resolution of the Libyan crisis, under the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative, Ghassan Salame, which we firmly support.

I stressed that Greece, as a neighbouring country of Libya directly affected by developments there, and as a factor for stability in the region, has a role and a say in the situation in Libya.
These developments include illegal actions that fuel the conflict and undermine peace and stability in the region.

We also talked about the next steps in the Cyprus issue, underscoring that we firmly support the efforts of the UN Secretary-General to reopen the talks with the aim of achieving a just and viable solution to the Cyprus issue, based on the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the European acquis.