Werner Hoyer, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, is travelling to Cyprus for political talks on 11 and 12 February. In Nicosia he will meet with Nicholas Emiliou, his counterpart and Permanent Secretary of the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Commissioner George Iacovou, the Cypriot Government’s chief negotiator for the Cyprus negotiations, Mehmet Talat, the leader of the Turkish-Cypriot community, as well as Alexander Downer, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus.

The talks will focus on the negotiations to resolve the Cyprus conflict, which are at a critical stage. The aim of the negotiations is to end the division of the island, whose northern part has been occupied by Turkish troops since 1974. Minister of State Hoyer will express the German Government’s support for a durable resolution of the conflict and call on both sides to show courage, a readiness to compromise and flexibility. The settlement of this conflict is in the interest of the EU and the United Nations, which is acting as mediator in the talks.

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