22 February 2019•Update: 22 February 2019
By Elena Teslova
MOSCOW
The Russian and Greek Cypriot foreign ministers on Friday urged restarted talks between the Turkish and Greek sides of the island.
"We believe that inter-community negotiations should be resumed on the basis of existing UN Security Council resolutions, and only new decisions of the Security Council can introduce any changes in the negotiation base," Russia's Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Moscow after the meeting.
Lavrov characterized the longstanding system of guarantor countries for the island -- Turkey, Greece, and Britain -- “obsolete,” saying the system “doesn’t meet current realities and the international legal status of the republic."
"We are convinced that the most effective way to ensure the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Cyprus should be the guarantees of the UN Security Council," he said.
Lavrov also rejected the idea of revising the mandate of peacekeepers on the island, saying "there is no reason for that."
In turn, Nikos Christodoulides, Greek Cyprus’ top diplomat, expressed readiness to reopen talks with the Turkish Cypriots "from the moment when they were interrupted … in Crans-Montana," Switzerland, where they collapsed in 2017.
"These negotiations should have a single, non-negotiable goal -- to achieve a solution, based on the relevant UN resolutions, European and international law, EU principles and values," he said.
He echoed Lavrov's position on the UN peacekeepers, saying "it is necessary to maintain the possibility of presence of the UN peacekeeping contingent" until the two sides find a solution.
Cyprus has been divided since when a Greek Cypriot coup was followed by violence against the island's Turks and Ankara's intervention as a guarantor power.
It has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including the failed 2017 initiative in Switzerland under the auspices of guarantor countries Turkey, Greece and the U.K.
