Cyprus has thanked Serbia for its long standing support in efforts to find a negotiated settlement of the Cyprus issue and said it supports Serbia’s European aspirations to join the EU.Acting Defence Minister Stavros Malas has thanked the Minister of Defence of Serbia Dragan Sutanovac for the strong support his country affords the people of Cyprus in their efforts to reunite their country, divided since the 1974 Turkish invasion.
Malas met on Wednesday with Sutanovac at the Ministry of Defence on the occasion of the Serbian Minister’s visit to Cyprus to inspect the Serbian contingent of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Malas said he briefed him on the latest developments in the Cyprus problem and the fact that unfortunately the ongoing UN-led direct negotiations between the two community leaders are not going in the right direction due to the stance of the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkey which “unfortunately has a partitionist vision and not a vision that expresses the desires of all the people of Cyprus”.
UN-led talks are currently underway between the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus with an aim to reunify the island, divided since the Turkish invasion of 1974 which resulted in the occupation of the island’s northern third.
Acting Defence Minister added that he also expressed Cyprus’ strong support to Serbia's EU accession course, regardless of the outcome of the Kosovo issue on which Cyprus has expressed a principled position respecting the independence and sovereignty of Serbia.
Malas said that he briefed his interlocutor on the discovery of natural gas in Cyprus' exclusive economic zone and explained to him that the discovery and exploitation of natural gas will be a peace lever to promote peace in the region.
In conclusion, he said that ''we are a peace loving country that looks forward to peaceful coexistence with our neighbors in the region.''
In December 2011, President Demetris Christofias announced that the results of the exploratory drilling in Cyprus' block 12 were positive, describing the discovery of hydrocarbons as historic for the island.
US company Noble Energy, which carried out the drilling, discovered 310 feet of net natural gas pay. The drilling reached a depth of 19,225 feet in water depth of about 5,540 feet.
The initial data that emerged from the exploratory drilling and the evaluation checks carried out indicate the existence of a natural gas reservoir ranging from 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) with a gross mean of 7 tcf.
Cyprus has recently launched a second licensing round for the 12 remaining blocks of its Exclusive Economic Zone.
— Copyright © Famagusta Gazette 2012
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