Athens, 17/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - Ioannis Cassoulides, Cypriot Foreign Minister, said in an interview with the daily Kathimerini, two weeks before the opening of indirect intra-community talks in Geneva that, if he were received as the Cypriot foreign minister by the Turkish government, it would be a pleasure for him to go to Ankara for talks. In his view, such talks would allow each of the two parties to take the concerns of the other into account and to show their political determination to examine what could be done.
Furthermore, Greek Foreign Minister Georges Papandreou stressed in an interview with CNN, after talks with his British counterpart Robin Cook, the role that can be played by what he calls the "people's diplomacy", in forging progress to a solution of the Cyprus problem. Mr Papandreou, who recalled that he must be in Turkey this week, also said that the European Union could play a "more active role … in intercommunal contacts between such groups as youth and women's organisations and non-governmental organisations".