Military

17 February 2004 – United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's top adviser for Cyprus arrived in the island nation today after stops in Dublin and Brussels for talks with top European officials.

Alvaro de Soto, Mr. Annan's Special Adviser for Cyprus, will chair the direct meetings - set to reconvene Thursday - between the two parties. The technical committees on laws and treaties will reconvene on the same day.

"There is a lot of work to do," Mr. de Soto said to reporters on arrival at Larnaca airport. "It is not possible to underestimate the amount of work that there is to do."

At the same time, he noted "a strong political determination that has been show by the parties as well as by Greece and by Turkey."

The envoy also voiced hope that in the coming weeks, "all will show the capacity to work and the continued political courage and vision and spirit of compromise that will be required in order to match the political determination already shown."

Last Friday in New York the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, committed to Mr. Annan's plan to reunify Cyprus ahead of its entry into the European Union (EU) on 1 May along with nine other nations.

The parties will seek to finalize negotiations in Cyprus under Mr. de Soto by 22 March. If they fail to agree, Mr. Annan will then convene a meeting of the two sides along with Greece and Turkey in an effort to agree on a final text by 29 March.

As a last resort, the Secretary-General has been invited by the parties to use his discretion to finalize the text to be submitted to referenda on the basis of his plan, which would ultimately create a federation of two constituent states - a Greek Cypriot state and the Turkish Cypriot state - and contains some suggestions for security arrangements between Greece and Turkey.