Safadi meets with Cypriot president ahead of trilateral summit preparations

AMMAN — Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday received Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi ahead of a ministerial meeting in Cyprus to prepare for the second Jordanian-Cypriot-Greek summit, to be held in Amman in mid-2019.

Safadi conveyed a verbal message from His Majesty King Abdullah to the Cypriot president stressing that the Kingdom is looking forward to hosting the second summit, “an important platform to consolidate the growing partnership between the three countries in many vital fields and to increase coordination and cooperation on regional issues to achieve the shared objectives of enhancing peace and stability and achieving further economic development”, a Foreign Ministry statement said.

The top diplomat said that Jordan is working to ensure that the summit “does come up with more deliverables that will institutionalise our cooperation and also deliver results to our peoples and countries”, according to the statement.

The Cypriot president conveyed his greetings to the King and affirmed his country's appreciation of the Kingdom's role and efforts to promote regional stability, the statement added.

Anastasiades stressed his country’s keenness to further deepen relations with Jordan in various fields and within the framework of tripartite cooperation with Greece and the EU, according to the statement.

He also said that the second trilateral summit would provide an opportunity for progress in the Cypriot partnership with the Kingdom, as well as a chance to further cooperation and coordination, the statement said. 

Safadi, along with his Cypriot and Greek counterparts Nikos Christodoulides and Georgios Katrougalos, stressed the importance of the progress reached since the trilateral cooperation mechanism was launched in 2016 and officially established during the first summit in Cyprus earlier this year.

“Jordan looks at this partnership, the trilateral mechanism, as a very effective way of pooling our resources, again, in our efforts to bring about peace and stability to the region and also achieve a higher degree of cooperation... which will benefit all of our peoples,” Safadi said in press remarks following the ministerial talks.

The representatives of the three countries discussed several regional and international issues, including efforts to end the deadlock in the Middle East peace process and resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of a two-state solution, as well as developments in Syria, immigration issues, counterterrorism, security and developments in the Cyprus issue.

On the Palestinian cause, Safadi said that “the absence of political horizon is a danger to all of us and we will continue to work together with Cyprus, with Greece and with other partners in the international community, to make sure that we give people hope that occupation will end and that a solution on the basis of the two state solution will emerge soon”.

The ministers agreed to hold an economic conference in parallel with the trilateral summit in Amman, bringing together representatives of the private sectors of the three countries. They also agreed to hold inter-ministerial meetings to identify specific sectors to promote economic cooperation, including joint tourism marketing.

Safadi said that Jordan would continue to work with Greece and Cyprus to strengthen the partnership in an effective and practical manner to take economic, trade, investment and defence relations to a new level.

The Cypriot foreign minister stressed that the EU sees partnership with Jordan as vital for security and stability and looks forward to further cooperation with the Kingdom.

He added that Wednesday’s trilateral ministerial level reflects a “clear commitment to work collectively together to jointly address the challenges of our region”.

“We agreed that the establishment of the permanent secretariat will best serve the realisation of our common objective of improving the effectiveness and coordination of our trilateral mechanism, and we will elaborate further and present it in the forthcoming summit,” Christodoulides announced.

He also expressed gratitude towards Jordan’s “principle stance and support on the Cyprus problem”.

Katrougalos praised the moderate model that Jordan represents and the humanitarian role it plays towards Syrian refugees.

He stressed that all three countries are committed to peace, adding: “We are not just pillars of stability, we want to export stability in the area and we share the same values.”

Safadi and his Cypriot counterpart held a separate meeting to discuss prospects for further bilateral cooperation, according to the statement.