British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson will arrive in Geneva on Thursday morning to attend the Conference while Minister of State at the Foreign Office Sir Alan Duncan was expected to arrive on Wednesday evening at the Swiss town.
The same source told CNA that during his stay in Geneva Johnson will hold talks with the various key players who are in Geneva for the Conference that will address the issue of security and guarantees.
Replying to a question, the source said that there are no plans about when Johnson will depart, and that “obviously this depends on the progress” of the talks.
“We are trying to make this a success”, the same source said, and reiterated the UK`s support to the UN-led negotiations aiming to reach a Cyprus settlement.
Finally the source said that the UK delegation which is in Geneva for the Conference comprises 30-40 people.
The UK will be represented at the Conference as one of the guarantor powers for Cyprus. The other two guarantor powers, Greece and Turkey, will also be represented by their Foreign Ministers Nikos Kotzias and Mevlut Cavusoglu. The EU, of which Cyprus is a member state since 2004, will also be represented by a delegation headed by European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have been engaged in UN-led talks since May 2015 with a view to reunify the island under a federal roof.
On December 1st, 2016, they decided to continue their negotiations from January 9th to 11th in Geneva, and that on January 12th a Conference on Cyprus will begin.
CNA
