Russia welcomes meeting between leaders of Greek, Turkish community of Cyprus, UN secretary-general planned for late Nov - Lavrov
MOSCOW. Nov 6 (Interfax) - Russia welcomes planned contacts between the leaders of the Greek and Turkish community of Cyprus in Berlin via the UN secretary-general's mediation, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We've heard that UN Secretary-General Mr. Gutteres is preparing a trilateral meeting by inviting the leaders of the Cypriot communities, Mr. [Nicos] Anastasiades and Mr. [Mustafa] Akinci. We welcome such a contact," Lavrov said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Closer involvement of permanent UN Security Council members in accompanying negotiations would help promote the implementation of the UN's decisions on settling the Cyprus conflict, he said.
"We believe it would be the right thing to do to seek to replace the current archaic system of guarantees with guarantees by the UN Security Council, primarily its five permanent members, as part of external settlement aspects," Lavrov said.
President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, leader of the Turkish community of Cyprus Mustafa Akinci, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres plan to meet in Berlin on November 25.