Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot political parties have expressed satisfaction on the appointment anew of a personal envoy of the UNSG as well as for the agreement on confidence-building measures, during the recent broadened meeting in Geneva.
In a joint Joint Communiqué issued following a meeting under the auspices of the Embassy of the Slovak Republic, at the Ledra Palace, on Wednesday, the representatives of the parties also concur that the leaders should take steps to incrementally implement confidence-building measures agreed in Geneva and call on both leaders to expand areas of cooperation between the communities, such as climate change and natural disaster crisis management.
It was agreed that any peaceful resolution on the island has to prioritise bicommunal cooperation, the communique reads.
The leaders and representatives of the parties, recognising the shared environmental challenges that transcend the whole island and acknowledging the pressing need for a collaborative action to address climate change, natural disasters, emphasised the importance and timeliness of extending the mandate of the current Bicommunal Technical Committee on Environment, in the areas of climate change and natural disaster crisis management.
The communique also says that the representatives exchanged ideas on the scope and functionality of such a Bicommunal Technical Committee in light of the decision at the informal broadened meeting in Geneva for bilateral cooperation on environment and solar energy project, among other issues.
Representatives shared the notion that the environmental challenges faced by both communities are common and they expressed that bicommunal cooperation is imperative in areas that have a humanitarian focus.
The next meeting of the leaders and representatives of the political parties will be held on 30 April 2025 with Socialist Party of Cyprus (SPC) as the hosting party.
Today’s hosting party was the Turkish Cypriot Democratic Party (DP) which proposed the topic: “Establishment of a Bicommunal environment, climate change and emergency response committee to facilitate bicommunal cooperation”.
( Source: CNA )
