Regional crisis, FMD at president’s meetings with Guterres, von der Leyen

The Middle East crisis, the foot and mouth disease outbreak on the island and the way forward in the Cyprus problem are on President Nikos Christodoulides’ agenda on Wednesday, as he is set to meet in Brussels with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.

Christodoulides is in Brussels to attend the European Council and will be meeting Guterres on Wednesday afternoon.

Government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis said the initiative for the meeting was taken by the president himself.

The president “will clearly reaffirm our political will for the immediate resumption of talks from where they left off in Crans Montana, on the basis of the agreed framework of solution, relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the EU acquis, and the principles and values of EU law”, Letymbiotis said.

“Maintaining the current deadlock cannot be an option, and time passing makes the need for substantial progress even more urgent,” he added.

With von der Leyen, Christodoulides will discuss regional developments and the foot and mouth outbreak.

Later on Wednesday, the president will participate in an event organised by the European Policy Centre, where he will present the vision and priorities of the Cyprus EU Presidency. He will also highlight the need for the bloc to achieve further strategic autonomy.

Christodoulides will furthermore attend the Tripartite Social Summit, where he will refer to quality jobs and strengthening competitiveness as key prerequisites for a resilient and sustainable European economy.