WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Security talks between US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Cyprus Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides also included a discussion of UN-brokered efforts to help Cypriots negotiate a reunification of the divided Mediterranean island, the State Department said on Monday.
"The Secretary reaffirmed... the continued U.S. support to Cypriot-led, UN-facilitated efforts to reunify the island as a bizonal, bicommunal federation, for the benefit of all Cypriots," the department said in a press release after their meeting.
UN peacekeeping forces continue to patrol a UN buffer zone of barbed wire, sandbags and guard posts nearly a half century after the island's division between an internationally recognized Greek controlled south and a self-declared Turkish state in the north.
In Monday's meeting Pompeo also underscored the strategic importance of the Eastern Mediterranean region and the US commitment to the Greek-led Republic of Cyprus, one year after a bilateral Statement of Intent to strengthen the bilateral security relationship.
