The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, met yesterday Wednesday in New York, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Gerapetritis.

After the end of his meeting with Mr. Guterres, Mr. Gerapetritis, speaking to the journalists, emphasized that they had the opportunity to discuss extensively and in depth, about the major issues that currently concern the United Nations Organization.

“First of all, we discussed the election of Greece to the position of a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, a position that Greece aspires to hold with vigor, to be able to unite the North with the South, the East with the West, so as to create a voice of reason, a voice of International Law within the United Nations Organization, so that the voice of Greece and all states that have the same understanding can be heard,” emphasized Mr. Gerapetritis.

“We had the opportunity to discuss with the General Secretary in addition the critical issues of the Middle East and Ukraine, particularly the issue of the Middle East and the proposal, which has been put forward for an immediate ceasefire” added the Minister.

He emphasized that “it is a proposal, which should be accepted. We will all work in this direction. Next week, there will be a meeting at the highest level, in Amman, Jordan, with the presence of the Secretary General. Greece always offers its good services, both bilaterally and multilaterally, in the context of International Organizations. All forms of aggression must stop. The humanitarian disaster is beyond imagination. We can no longer delay peace and prosperity in the world.”

Finally, as the Minister mentioned, “we had the opportunity to discuss with the Secretary General also about the issue of the Cypriot, in the presence of the Personal Envoy of the Secretary General Mrs. Holguin. The discussion revolved around the current state of affairs. We reiterated our basic position that the two sides should sit at the dialogue table, discuss frankly and discuss so that mutual trust can be built within the framework of the decisions taken in the United Nations Security Council. So that the situation that we all desire and which is also a timeless requirement of International Law and the United Nations Organization can come to Cyprus. We expect that in the immediate future, on the initiative of the Personal Envoy of the General Secretary, there will be further discussions so that we can start the dialogue”.

“With the Secretary General we agreed that it is an important moment. It is an opportunity, which we must not let go to waste and in this direction Greece will stand as a helper with the Republic of Cyprus, so that we manage to take important steps to solve the chronic problem of the Cypriots” added Mr. Gerapetritis.