Greek FM to meet with UN’s Cyprus envoy in Athens
Jane Holl Lute, the special envoy of the UN Secretary General, is set to meet with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias on Tuesday as part of her ongoing Cyprus tour.
Kotzias will welcome the UN diplomat in Athens at 4 p.m., where he is expected to lay down the main positions of his government regarding the Cyprus talks process.
The meeting comes one week following the foreign minister’s visit to Izmir, where he met with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and attended the inauguration of a renovated historic building of the Greek General Consulate in the Turkish city.
The UN envoy already held separate meetings back in July with the two Cypriot leaders, President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci, as well as Cavusoglu, but she made no public comments about her exchanges.
Lute’s meetings are part of a round of consultations where the UN diplomat is sounding out all parties involved in the Cyprus issue and reporting back to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
The UN envoy will then visit Brussels where she will sit down with Federica Mogherini, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Following consultations, Guterres is expected to evaluate Lute’s input as a decision is being sought whether there is ground for restarting meaningful peace talks.
Guterres said he might take a new initiative on the Cyprus negotiations only if he feels that both sides are willing and prepared to go all the way.
The Greek foreign minister will also meet with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides this week, while both men will be in Israel on Thursday. [Kathimerini Cyprus]
