The two sides in the Cyprus negotiations cannot agree on who should attend the Cyprus Summit in Geneva in January.
The Turkish Cypriots sides wants the guarantor states and the EU to be present at the meetings.
However, the Greek Cypriot side insists that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, Russia, China, Britain and France and Cyprus be present.
The negotiations will begin in Geneva on 9th January to iron out any outstanding disagreements on governance and power sharing, property, economy, the EU and territory.
This is intended to lead to meetings which will include the guarantor states, in an attempt to make an agreement on the problematic chapter on security and guarantors.
A Turkish Cypriot source said that the demand to include the five permanent members of the UN Security council had come out of the blue.
“There is no such precedent. Never during 50 years of Cyprus negotiations were the P5 ever involved. Involving them would make the Cyprus problem part of much bigger negotiations in the region by big powers.”
Political pundits are saying that the suggestion by south Cyprus to include the P5 in the negotiations, is an attempt to redress the balance between a strong Turkey and a much weaker Greece.
Last week, UN Special Advisor on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide told ‘Cyprus Weekly’ that the Geneva Summit had been based on the idea of the 2004 Burgenstock conference and that the two sides, along with the UN had anticipated that the other participants would be the guarantor countries and the EU.
Eide said that the role of the P5 would come into play directly after the negotiations on security and territory.
Both sides need to agree on who should be invited to attend the conference.
Meanwhile the two chief negotiators Ozdil Nami and Andreas Mavroyiannis continue their busy schedule of meetings to reach agreements on any outstanding issues in the first four chapters of the negotiations.
Cyprus Weekly