Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos is set to have a full programme of meetings next week during his stay in New York on the occasion of the United Nations General Assembly.
According to information obtained by CNA from diplomatic sources, 35 bilateral meetings with his counterparts from UN member states have been confirmed so far, whilst he will also take part in at least five meetings with the President of the Republic, with the programme still being finalised.
As stated, meetings have been scheduled with countries on the African continent, such as Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Botswana, Senegal, Rwanda, Mauritania and Tanzania, in the Middle East, such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Lebanon, in Central Asia, such as Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and in Asia, including India, the Philippines and the Maldives.
According to the same sources, these meetings are the result not only of geographical planning but also of taking into account the membership of several of the above countries in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, as well as the Turkic-speaking countries of Central Asia.
They added that, following a Cypriot initiative, a high-level meeting of small European states will be co-organized with Andorra at the Permanent Mission of Cyprus to the UN, including Cyprus, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Monaco and San Marino, with cooperation amongst the small European states also encompassing the Council of Europe dimension and issues relating to property and missing persons.
They also mentioned that two trilateral meetings will be held with Egypt and Jordan, whilst the Foreign Minister will take part in a series of multilateral meetings, such as the informal EU Foreign Affairs Council with guests from Asian countries, a ministerial discussion on the Middle East chaired by the Qatari Foreign Minister and the EU High Representative, Kaja Kallas, ministerial meetings on the Middle East and the two-state solution and on rising sea levels, as well as an informal meeting of EU Foreign Ministers with their counterparts from CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States).
The same sources also said that contacts have already been made with two of the candidates to succeed António Guterres as UN Secretary-General, with the contact with the first candidate having taken place during last year’s UN General Assembly, whilst a few days ago a government minister met with the second candidate as part of another meeting.
They added that there may be further contacts either with the aforementioned candidates or with other candidates, as part of a social gathering to be held in New York.