NICOSIA: Cyprus will have a new foreign envoy but keep the same finance minister, it was announced Tuesday, as the country seeks to restart unity talks and boost its economy.
The cabinet reshuffle comes after President Nicos Anastasiades won re-election for a second term earlier this month on promises of resuming negotiations to unify the Mediterranean island and cementing a fragile economic recovery.
Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides will take up the key post of foreign minister in the new administration to be sworn in on March 1.
The 44-year-old joined the diplomatic corps in 1999 before serving as government spokesman from 2013.
He was widely expected to be given the position after veteran diplomat Ioannis Kasoulides, 69, decided to retire from office.
Finance Minister Harris Georgiades is to keep his job after having navigated Cyprus out of a painful bailout deal, while George Lakkotrypis remains in charge of energy and a booming tourism sector.
Since his re-election on February 4, Anastasiades, 71, has sought to appoint ministers of wider public acceptance and without strong political allegiances.
He has added one woman to the cabinet, with parliamentary official Vasiliki Anastasiadou to become transport and communications minister.
But the new 11-member cabinet will still only include two women.
Other new faces include lawyer Savvas Angelides as defense minister.
Education ministry official Costas Hambiaouris has been promoted to minister, while businessman Constantinos Ioannou is tasked with introducing the new national health scheme as health minister.
Anastasiades has pledged fresh talks to end the nearly 44-year partition between the Greek-majority Republic of Cyprus in the south and a Turkish-backed statelet in the north.
UN-backed negotiations collapsed in July last year after coming closer than ever to sealing a deal.
In his first term, Cyprus made an impressive recovery from a 2013 financial crisis after he agreed to a harsh 10-billion euro (more than $12-billion) bailout.
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Cyprus gets new foreign minister in cabinet shake-up
Cyprus gets new foreign minister in cabinet shake-up
Russia says talks on US peace plan for Ukraine ‘are proceeding constructively’
- The talks are part of the Trump administration’s push for peace, which included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said much depends on the US posture after discussions with the Russians
A Kremlin envoy says peace talks on a US-proposed plan to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were pressing on “constructively” in Florida.
The talks are part of the Trump administration’s monthslong push for peace that also included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week.
“The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow,” Kirill Dmitriev told reporters Saturday, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Dmitriev met with US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami, the agency reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that much will depend on the US posture after discussions with the Russians. This came a day after Ukraine’s chief negotiator said his delegation had completed separate meetings in the United States with American and European partners.
Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he is digging in on his maximalist demands on Ukraine, as Moscow’s troops inch forward on the battlefield despite huge losses.
On Friday, Putin expressed confidence that the Kremlin would achieve its military goals if Kyiv didn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks.
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, although they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds. Instead, they were borrowed from capital markets.
The talks are part of the Trump administration’s monthslong push for peace that also included meetings with Ukrainian and European officials in Berlin earlier this week.
“The discussions are proceeding constructively. They began earlier and will continue today, and will also continue tomorrow,” Kirill Dmitriev told reporters Saturday, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Dmitriev met with US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Miami, the agency reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that much will depend on the US posture after discussions with the Russians. This came a day after Ukraine’s chief negotiator said his delegation had completed separate meetings in the United States with American and European partners.
Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv. Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently signaled he is digging in on his maximalist demands on Ukraine, as Moscow’s troops inch forward on the battlefield despite huge losses.
On Friday, Putin expressed confidence that the Kremlin would achieve its military goals if Kyiv didn’t agree to Russia’s conditions in peace talks.
European Union leaders agreed on Friday to provide 90 billion euros ($106 billion) to Ukraine to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years, although they failed to bridge differences with Belgium that would have allowed them to use frozen Russian assets to raise the funds. Instead, they were borrowed from capital markets.
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