President of the Republic receives the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cyprus
Ljubljana, 02/16/2007 | press release
The President of the Republic of Slovenia, Dr Janez Drnovšek, today received the Cyprus Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Yiorgos Lillikas.
In the meeting, the development of bilateral relations in all areas was evaluated favourably; both countries participate creatively in activities at multilateral levels and as EU Member States. Following Slovenia, Cyprus intends to join the Monetary Union and introduce the euro as soon as possible, said Minister Lillikas.
The head of Cypriot diplomacy expressed his thanks to Slovenia for its support in dealing with the issues of the divided Cyprus at the international level.
President Drnovšek promised to continue to provide such support in the future, while expressing his hope that Cypriots will make progress in the dialogue between the two ethnic communities, Greek and Turkish, and come up with a constructive solution to the problems facing the country. Minister Lillikas informed the president that they expect in the near future to realize the agreement arrived at through the intervention of the international community last year.
The Cypriot minister was particularly interested in the position of President Drnovšek regarding the status of Kosovo. He expressed his opinion that an agreement on the status of Kosovo could have wider international implications. President Drnovšek pointed out that the situation in Kosovo is quite a specific one, as are also other issues in other countries, and that in no way should these issues be related to one another. In so doing, any of these issues would be made more difficult to deal with.
President Drnovšek and Minister Lillikas also discussed the question of the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe and the need of the EU to realize its concept of a common foreign and security policy.
President Drnovšek was pleased to receive the information that, in response to his invitation, the Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos will officially visit Slovenia on 25 and 26 April this year.