ATHENS: Leaders of Cyprus’s two ethnically split communities have agreed to an informal meeting on April 16, the United Nations mission on the island said on Friday.
The meeting between Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci will be the first since UN-led peace talks collapsed in acrimony in Switzerland in July 2017.
The two sides had then disagreed on the future role Turkey could play in a post-settlement Cyprus, split in a Turkish invasion in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup engineered by the military which was then ruling Greece.
The evening meeting on April 16 does not herald the start of a new round of peace talks, but would clarify where the sides stand on the issue.
The perils of a deadlocked process have come into sharper focus after a public spat between Cyprus’s internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government and Turkey in overlapping claims of jurisdiction for offshore oil and gas research.
A vessel charted by Italy’s state-controlled Eni was unable to reach an area Cyprus licensed for drilling because of Turkish military maneuvers in a two-week standoff in February.
Turkey has vowed to prevent what it sees as a unilateral move by Greek Cypriots to claim offshore resources as its own, but EU member Cyprus has shown no signs of backing down.
Brussels has urged Turkey to avoid threats and refrain from actions that could damage relations with the bloc. Last week EU leaders condemned what they described as ‘continued illegal actions’ by Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The encounter between Akinci and Anastasiades will take place at the residence of the UN envoy on the island, Elizabeth Spehar, in a ‘buffer zone’ compound used by peacekeepers straddling the two sides in Nicosia, the divided capital.
A UN mission has been on the island since the early 1960s, when a power-sharing administration between Greek and Turkish Cypriots crumbled amid violence just three years after independence from Britain.
Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to renew talks
Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders to renew talks
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Brazil’s Lula urges Trump to treat all countries equally
NEW DELHI: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva urged Donald Trump on Sunday to treat all countries equally after the US leader imposed a 15 percent tariff on imports following an adverse Supreme Court ruling.
“I want to tell the US President Donald Trump that we don’t want a new Cold War. We don’t want interference in any other country, we want all countries to be treated equally,” Lula told reporters in New Delhi.
The conservative-majority Supreme Court ruled six to three on Friday that a 1977 law Trump has relied on to slap sudden levies on individual countries, upending global trade, “does not authorize the President to impose tariffs.”
Lula said he would not like to react to the Supreme Court decisions of another country, but hoped that Brazil’s relations with the United States “will go back to normalcy” soon.
The veteran leftist leader is expected to travel to Washington next month for a meeting with Trump.
“I am convinced that Brazil-US relation will go back to normalcy after our conversation,” Lula, 80, said, adding that Brazil only wanted to “live in peace, generate jobs, and improve the lives of our people.”
Lula and Trump, 79, stand on polar opposite sides when it comes to issues such as multilateralism, international trade and the fight against climate change.
However, ties between Brazil and the United States appear to be on the mend after months of animosity between Washington and Brasilia.
As a result, Trump’s administration has exempted key Brazilian exports from 40 percent tariffs that had been imposed on the South American country last year.
‘Affinity’
“The world doesn’t need more turbulence, it needs peace,” said Lula, who arrived in India on Wednesday for a summit on artificial intelligence and a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Ties between Washington and Brasilia soured in recent months, with Trump angered over the trial and conviction of his ally, the far-right former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump imposed sanctions against several top officials, including a Supreme Court judge, to punish Brazil for what he termed a “witch hunt” against Bolsonaro.
Bolsonaro was sentenced to 27 years in prison for his role in a botched coup bid after his 2022 election loss to Lula.
Lula said that, as the two largest democracies in the Americas, he looked forward to a positive relationship with the United States.
“We are two men of 80 years of age, so we cannot play around with democracy,” he said.
“We have to take this very seriously. We have to shake hands eye-to-eye, person-to-person, and to discuss what is best for the US and Brazil.”
Lula also praised Modi after India and Brazil agreed to boost cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths and signed a raft of other deals on Saturday.
“I have a lot of affinity with Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
Lula will travel to South Korea later on Sunday for meetings with President Lee Jae Myung and to attend a business forum.
